In regard to the previously published editorial, I’m not sure with whom Aaron Escebedo communicated, but we feel the need to clarify misstatements about our organization, the ACU College Democrats.
First, our organization is not rebuilding – we are undergoing a brief leadership transition. We remain focused on our mission of uniting students together to help get Democrats elected at all levels.
Second, the Taylor County Democratic Party does not fund our events. We collaborate with them in order to defray costs, allowing us to be a more sustainable student organization as we recognize the importance of networking and partnership within the community.
Third, our budget, while only being $65 for an interest meeting, was intentionally constrained in order to follow the electoral guidelines in the ACU Student Organization Handbook. We understood it to be only acceptable to request student funding for events targeted toward the entire student body, not ones that are tailored toward a specific electoral campaign. According to the Handbook, student organizations are limited in their capacity to formally aid specific candidates on campus, and therefore, the primary purpose of our budget was to garner student interest at our upcoming meeting, which is this coming Tuesday, to connect students with these campaigns and like-minded individuals on and off campus.
It is our understanding that the budget of the ACU Young Republicans was for events and a T-shirt fundraiser to support specific Republican candidates on campus. Thus, while there was a disparity between the two budgets, we feel that our budget was more in line with the guidelines established in the Student Organization Handbook, and we agree with the Students’ Association’s decision to keep both organizations’ funding similar. We feel that it is important for this nonpartisan student funding to be dispersed as fairly and equitably as possible.
We appreciate Mr. Escebedo’s willingness to cooperate with our organization and look forward to communicating with him in the future. We feel that these lines of communication are vital to maintaining a bipartisan campus atmosphere.
Overall, it is the purpose of both organizations to encourage and increase the civic involvement of the student body and we hope, despite any disagreements, we can remain focused on that common goal as we head into elections this November.
