In the Nov. 20 edition of The News, there was a scathing All Hail written by a member of The News staff, Jeff Miranda “All Hail: ‘Yes We Can’ not a slogan for NU Democrats,” criticized the effectiveness of Northeastern University College Democrats (NUCD) throughout the course of the fall campaign. We, the executive board of NU College Democrats, are writing today to set the record straight and correct any negative impressions left by someone who, unfortunately, does not grasp the extent to which NUCD provided assistance to the Obama campaign.
During the course of the summer, our executive board began to work with the Massachusetts Democratic Party and the Obama campaign to plan its efforts for the fall. The campaign and the party made clear that our primary focus should be voter registration – and that was exactly what NUCD did.
We planned a large scale voter registration drive, wherein we knocked on each and every door in the freshman residence halls. A disagreement with the university about “dorm storming,” unfortunately ensued, resulting in a delay of the program. The issue was resolved, however, and dorm storming went forward. When all was said and done, we knocked on almost all of the freshman doors and registered about 200 new voters. We made use of a universal voter registration form so students could register to vote in their home states if they wished. As each universal form had to be sent to a different address (forms usually must be sent to the municipality or county wherein a prospective voter resides), this required hours of research on the part of our leadership and members who helped out. Yet the effort was a success. Two hundred students, who otherwise may not have registered to vote, registered with Northeastern University College Democrats.
The state Democratic Party held a contest among the College Democrats organizations to see which ones could register the most new voters on their campuses. We competed against sister organizations at Boston University, Boston College, UMass, Simmons, Harvard and many others. Late last week, we were informed by the party that our chapter had won second place in the contest, falling behind only UMass. For this striking achievement – given the delay in our registration program – we were awarded a prize of $150 by the Democratic State Committee’s Youth Services Committee.
The author of the Nov. 20 piece complains that NUCD put a month of time between general meetings during the fall campaign; that statement is deliberately misleading. Though only two formal meetings were held prior to the election, our calendar included – per week – multiple “dorm storms” or cell phone banks from campus, with a trip to New Hampshire on the calendar almost every weekend. Prior to the arrival of voter registration deadlines, we conducted two or three dorm storms each week, with two or three cell phone banks per week following that.
During a “general meeting,” no new voters are registered, and no voters are contacted. We simply do not understand how a student political organization with three campaign events per week can possibly be labeled as “indifferent.”
The author admitted he took part in one of our cell phone banks and embarked on two bus trips to New Hampshire that we coordinated with the Obama campaign. That is not one, not two, but three volunteer opportunities for the Obama campaign that the author was able to take advantage of as a result of our efforts.
On a sad note, we would like to point out that at no point prior to the election did the author of the All Hail approach us with his complaints or grievances. The author has chosen to be a Monday morning quarterback: Rather than coming forward with potentially constructive suggestions while they may still be of use, he chose instead to lob out-of-context insults long after the election ended.
No member of the NUCD executive board was contacted for comment, input or response for the piece. We are sorry that this individual did not enjoy his experience with NUCD, however he should be aware that our executive board is always amenable to suggestions. If you want to make a change, you must pursue that change, and not simply complain from the sidelines. Was this not a lesson of the Obama campaign?
The All Hail ends with a flip shot at the NUCD Victory Party that was held Wednesday, Nov. 19. We were happy – and proud – to purchase pizza and beverages for our members and to throw them a party. We – as well as the Obama campaign – are proud of them and we are grateful for everything they did for our party and its candidates.
Despite what the author of the piece would like you to believe, NUCD served as an effective tool for any student who wished to become involved in the Obama campaign to do so.
– Jason Palitsch, Rosa Barney, Caitlin Coyle, Josh Robin and Jennifer Kral comprise the Northeastern University Campus Democrats e-board.
