CU students join in DNC activities downtown
Student groups on campus were hard at work this week using the Democratic National Convention to boost group numbers and strengthen their organization.
The DNC was held in Denver Aug. 25 through Aug. 28.
“What we’re trying to do now is use the convention as a way to recruit new volunteers,” said fifth year senior political science major Jesse Jensen, 22.
Jensen, who is currently president of the College Democrats at CU, said despite some work at the DNC this week, his group’s main focus right now is in Boulder.
“Any time spent in Denver would be wasted when we could be on campus doing volunteer recruitment and registering new voters,” said Jensen, adding that events at the DNC “are pulling people who are already volunteers” to participate individually.
Jensen says members of the College Democrats have allied with the Obama campaign and were involved in an Obama rally at the UMC fountain on Tuesday. Jensen also encouraged students to buy tickets for the simulcast of presidential candidate Barack Obama’s speech Thursday night at the Boulder Theater.
Other student groups were hard at work planning demonstrations in downtown Denver.
“Students for Peace and Justice is one of the primary organizations planning demonstrations with the Alliance for Real Democracy,” sociology doctoral candidate Duke Wayne Austin of Students for Peace and Justice said.
Visit the ARD Web siteto view a schedule of events for the entire duration of the DNC.
Kristen Pieper, campus organizer for the Colorado Student Public Interest Research Group, explained that her group is non-partisan and will not participate in the DNC.
CoPIRG registered voters and threw a party to watch Obama’s speech Thursday night.
“We might as well get together in some sort of communal space to watch the speech,” Pieper said.
Another group that is tied in a very different way to the DNC is called 180 Degree Shift at the 11th hour, also known as 180-11. Senior history major Sean Daly, 25, is a member of 180-11 and has been helping manning the group’s booth at the UMC and in Denver for much of the week.
“It’s just an informational activity, officially,” Daly said of the booth, which was covered with flyers about the DNC.
Daly said he and other protestors went all across the city of Denver on Sunday with police hot on their trail. He also said that one march held on Monday ended violently. Daly was among marchers moving toward Civic Center Park in Denver when police ordered the crowd to disperse.
Daly followed police orders; others did not.
“They assembled in Civic Center Park, and the police lined up and sprayed pepper spray into the front lines,” Daly said, adding that the marchers were surrounded and many were arrested.
Another member of 180-11, senior international affairs major Everardo Bonilla-cardenas, 23, also mentioned the ugly side of the DNC.
“I was there [Monday] evening when all the people got arrested,” Bonilla-cardenas said.
The DNC concluded Thursday night with Obama’s acceptance of the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination.
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Sam Dieter at Samuel.dieter@colorado.edu.
