AMANDA DEDIE
News Editor
As the generation who will one day be ruling the world, it’s our responsibility to vote in a presidential candidate who can help take care of us, and have our best interests in mind, until we can start running the world on our own.
One candidate whose name is spreading like wildfire (other than Donald Trump, that is) is Bernie Sanders, United States Senator from Vermont and one of the Democratic presidential candidates for the year 2016.
As many presidential candidates do, Sanders has a plethora of issues he feels extremely passionate about, such as free college tuition, debt-free college, creating decent-paying jobs, women’s and LGBTQ rights, amongst many others.
As it so happens, some young adults are agreeing with Sanders on most, if not all of his stances on these issues. That’s why Delia Napolitano, a senior majoring in political science; James Coughlin, a senior majoring in social studies adolescent education, history and political science; and Louise Zollinger, a freshman majoring in English adolescent education and political science, joined together to form Fredonia Students for Bernie Sanders.
Fredonia Students for Bernie Sanders is a Facebook-group-turned-student-organization that, according to its page, is an “unofficial group for SUNY Fredonia students to express their support for Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders … We aspire to discuss his platform, campaign and ways to raise awareness among the Fredonia community.”
“A month ago, there was an event on campus advertised through Bernie Sanders’ website,” said Coughlin. “We realized, ‘there’s only three people here; this was not very well advertised,’ and yet we know there are a lot of Sanders supporters on campus, so we wanted to try to do something that will get students excited and motivated about Sanders and interested in his policies.”
So far, the group has held a debate-watch party and are actively to trying to increase voter registration by reaching out to students who are not registered to vote.
“Our first mission is to get everyone on campus registered to vote,” said Napolitano. “Our main concern is that a lot of people on this campus aren’t registered to vote.”
Napolitano continued, “Younger voters don’t go out to the polls, so why are candidates not speaking to younger voters? They think, ‘they’re not going to the polls, so they don’t matter.’ Bernie is putting those preconceived notions aside and he’s saying, this is who matters … He’s speaking to us rather than speaking down to us … and I think that’s important.”
What is it about Sanders that has close to 200 people rallying around him on just one campus alone? Why are students excited to share the ideologies, platforms and words of Sanders?
“I think it’s a lot of things. It’s a combination of the fact that he’s so sincere and genuine. He hasn’t changed his stance on issues in all the years he’s been in politics,” said Zollinger. “I think a lot of the things he stands for are the things we stand for. He wants to make healthcare and education available to everyone … that’s something a lot of us really care about.”
Fredonia Students for Bernie Sanders are even working with Buffalo for Bernie Sanders and will be working together to try to bring Bernie Sanders to Buffalo. Their hope is that they can draw a bigger crowd between the Buffalo and Fredonia areas to listen to Sanders speak on issues that are rarely spoken about in terms of the younger generations.
“He wants to help correct American democracy by getting big money out of politics, by ensuring that there’s not a lot of corporate influence, and ensuring that we will not have to face the burdens of our parents’ and grandparents’ generational mistakes,” said Coughlin.
Coughlin added, “This is not just about Sanders but about helping to educate students on American politics, problems with American politics, and helping them become more informed of what choices they can make and what issues are being debated.”