Political clubs at Seton Hall are making a comeback, with groups like Turning Point USA (TPUSA), an organization that advocates for conservative politics on academic campuses, and the Democrats Club, focused on democratic activism, drawing new members.
Reviving an inactive club at SHU requires students to reapply for activation through the Student Organization Advisory Committee (SOAC), Student Government Association (SGA) President Jackson Vaughn said.
“Because the potential political clubs have been inactive for more than one year, they have to…be approved by the SGA Senate,” Vaughn explained.
For students like freshman political science major Salma Osman, the process was the first step toward turning a personal initiative into a functioning organization. Within her first few weeks on campus, she set out to revive the Democrats Club at SHU after noticing the organization had been inactive for three years. Now, the club has 40 members.
“As a political science major, and someone who’s always been politically involved in her community, I’ve always wanted to make sure that we’re channeling the voices of our community,” Osman said.
Osman began designing “promotional material” and recruited Romaisa Arsalan, a freshman biochemistry and political science major she’d spoken to on her first day at SHU, to serve as vice president.
Arsalan said she was drawn to the club’s mission to empower students to get involved and share their perspectives.
“Everyone actually has a way to voice their concerns, voice their opinions and actually make an impact,” she said.
Osman said the goal of the revived chapter is to encourage civic engagement and open political discussion on campus by connecting with legislators, providing canvassing opportunities and offering political education.
“I want actual, tangible change,” she said.
“[For] our generation, Gen Z, it’s very hard to be connected to legislation,” Arsalan added. “I want to reach out to everyone and let them know [that]...this is a club where you will be heard, you will have an impact and you can actually make decisions and help the community around us.”
Osman and Arsalan said that the current political climate in the U.S. also motivated them to bring the club back.
“We live in an extremely polarizing political climate right now, where no side wants to compromise with one another,” Arsalan said.
Osman agreed, adding that the sense of division has changed how people approach politics.
“I’ve always viewed politics as something where people work together to find a common issue and…whatever party you’re aligned to, work together to solve this issue,” she said. “Now, I feel like politics is more like ‘I’m right and you’re wrong.’”
Despite those challenges, the pair said they’re optimistic about building a community of politically-engaged students on campus. They’ve started promoting the club through social media to attract new members.
The club also regularly participates in canvassing efforts. Members spent three weeks canvassing for governor-elect Mikie Sherrill in October, contributing over 85 volunteer hours and knocking on over 750 doors, according to their Instagram. Beginning Nov. 16, they plan to canvass for Hoboken mayoral candidate Emily Jabbour.
In addition to canvassing, the club organizes group trips to political events. Earlier this month, members attended a rally in Newark featuring Mikie Sherrill and Barack Obama on Nov. 1.
Vaughn said SGA is also working to foster respectful, cross-party political discourse on campus.
“It’s going to require me to host good events and promote good outreach so that we can ease these relevant topics into the heated space,” he said.
Vaughn has put this into practice by hosting “uncontroversial” events such as Ballots and Brownies, where students spin a wheel, answer a question about civic engagement and receive a brownie.
SGA also recently partnered with All In, a campus democracy challenge, and Unify America, a nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing political polarization and promoting civic skills, to partner SHU students with students from other schools and differing political perspectives to have a one-on-one Zoom conversation.
“For some students, this is their worst nightmare. You’ve got to go one-on-one with a complete stranger and talk about stuff you wouldn’t even talk about with your family,” Vaughn said. “But for me, it was actually a really exciting opportunity to meet somebody new.”
The conversation lasted about an hour and “encouraged respectful cross-party dialogue,” Vaughn said.
After a two-year hiatus, the TPUSA chapter at SHU returned to Instagram to honor Charlie Kirk following his death.
“Charlie Kirk’s assassination has awakened a fire in our student body,” a Sept. 17 post said. “We’re not just relaunching Turning Point USA, we’re rising in purpose, determined to carry forward the values Charlie so fiercely lived by.”
Members of TPUSA at SHU declined a request to comment on the return of their organization. However, according to their Instagram, they have met with SGA to “get [the] chapter up and running for [the] spring semester.”
Megan Pitt is the head editor for The Setonian’s News section. She can be reached at megan.pitt@student.shu.edu.
