A group of Syracuse University students are advocating fair campaigns and elections by trying to bring a chapter of a national organization, called Democracy Matters, to campus this fall.

‘It has the potential to affect so many other issues,’ said Christina Levin, the campus coordinator for SU and a political science, newspaper journalism and sociology major. ‘It focuses on the root of other social issues. It focuses on the evil of money in politics.’

The organization is not an officially recognized SU student group, but it obtained a faculty advisor last week and is filling out paperwork and recruiting members, Levin said. The chapter must have at least eight members, attend a Student Association meeting, get a faculty advisor and determine officer positions before it can be officially recognized.

Democracy Matters is a national, nonpartisan college student organization that focuses on getting corporate money out of the electoral process. Adonal Foyle, a former NBA player, started the organization in 2001. There are now about 60 chapters in 22 states, with most located in New York and California, said Joan Mandle, the executive director for Democracy Matters.

‘It’s part of a broad social movement which is taking back democracy and fighting against power,’ Mandle said.

Democracy Matters is part of a coalition of about 50 groups that support the Fair Elections Now Act in Congress, which would allow for people to run for Congress on a basis of small donations and public funding. Some of the other groups are the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Common Cause and the Sierra Club, Mandle said.

‘We’re not just bellyaching about what’s wrong,’ Mandle said. ‘We’re saying this is a practical system, a positive alternative.’

Some of the techniques the group uses to educate people and register voters are improvisation, handouts and posters, Mandle said. One chapter had students throw balloons at a member dressed as a big business ‘fat cat’ to let them understand corporate involvement in the government. Members of another chapter printed newsletters they hung in bathroom stalls on campus.

SU is one of 20 new chapters this year, Mandle said. This is a usual amount of chapters, due to student interns becoming more involved in the organization and deciding to head a chapter on their campus, she said.

‘We won’t do a chapter until we find a passionate student, rather than choosing a school,’ Mandle said. She added some schools don’t keep a chapter if there isn’t a good student to head it.

Levin became the SU campus coordinator this summer. When she came to SU as a freshman, she decided she wanted to be active in politics, and now as a junior she is able to do that by heading Democracy Matters, she said.

Levin decided to apply for the position after receiving an e-mail from her political science advisor announcing the position, she said. She thought it would be a good leadership opportunity that would help with careers down the road, she said.

She said she saw a lot of student groups that had political ties and thought this group would do well because it is nonpartisan and deals with other social issues.

There are already more than 60 students interested, Levin said. The first interest meeting will be Thursday night.

‘It’s a really fantastic opportunity,’ Levin said. ‘You’re participating in your local campus. It’s part of your civic duty in how democracy functions. This is one way to sustain it.’

The fall agenda for the group is to continue student voter registration and educate students on the group and their role in establishing fair elections, Levin said.

The group is also working with other groups on campus, such as the College Democrats and College Republicans, to help register voters.

‘Hopefully, by being involved locally, they’ll realize they can make a difference,’ Levin said.

Some of the benefits of becoming a student organization are being able to reserve spaces to meet and have informational table space in Schine Student Center, Levin said.

‘We’ve been piggybacking off other organizations, but we want to do it on our own now,’ Levin said.

Sociology professor Steven Brechin became the organization’s faculty advisor last week. As the faculty advisor, Brechin will be available to answer the students’ questions and help them become an official club, Levin said.

Brechin said he became the advisor because he respected Levin as a student and likes to help students be involved outside of the classroom.

‘I like to see students engaged,’ he said. ‘So if they want to be more politically engaged, then I’m all for it. Part of Maxwell is civic engagement.’

He said he also respects it is a student-run organization that lets students participate more in the democratic process.

‘I tell my students about the state, marketplace and civic society, and this is a chance for people to engage in the public sphere,’ he said. ‘As long as our civic society is vibrant, our democracy is vibrant.’

krkoerti@syr.edu

Published on September 15, 2010 at 12:00 pm