The Utah Tech University Young Democrats is an activist club that promotes diverse thinking on campus. With over 100 clubs at UT, this club is among the few who are dedicated to politics and advocacy.
This club started two years ago and has since hosted events such as presidential debate watch parties, protests and marches, as well as partnered with various organizations in the community.
In January, the club participated in a march for women’s rights. Over 70 people participated in this event, including children, families, teenagers and mainly older citizens, as reported by E. George Goold at St. George News.
Gillian Morrison, a sophomore marketing major from Hallsville, Washington, said they created the club to keep students informed, whether or not they aligned with a specific party.
“There were a lot of groups on campus that supported other ideas, so we wanted to make sure that we portrayed other ideas on campus,” Morrison said.
In the past, they have also partnered with Planned Parenthood and Students United for Reproductive Freedom, which is another advocacy club on campus.
“We want to represent all of the policies that are kind of being sent out right now that are not the majority of Utah,” Morrison said. “We just want to make that people are seen and that we represent what people really want.”
At the start of every fall and spring semester, the UT Young Democrats participate in Club Rush, which is where they get a majority of their members.
“Club Rush is always an interesting one [event] because people always want to debate all the time; they think we run the club to have specific debates, but we’re not the ones debating,” Morrison said.
Natalia Cervantes, a senior biomedical science major from St. George, said they have over 70 to 80 members, but getting people to events is difficult.
“The only thing that’s so hard is everybody’s major response is, ‘I don’t know,'” Cervantes said. “It’s just hard being out here because everybody’s scared of what other people will say because of the majority political affiliation in Utah.”
Last year they held meetings every other Friday, but they stopped doing it this year. They hope to get enough people who want to attend so they can start them again. As a progressive group, Morrison said they do not always, “lean on the left side.”
In their meetings, they talk about policies that are about to be passed, Cervantes said most of the time, people do not even know what is being talked about.
“We want to make it less of a scarier thing to be a part of the club,” Morrison said. “I think a lot of people are genuinely scared to attend events and meetings, or even just kind of have the uncomfortable conversations.”
