Throughout history, there has been a fundamental disconnect between Democrats and Republicans, but the Hinckley Institute of Politics established a student alliance to unite the factions under its roof for the common good of the U.
The new organization, called HISA-the Hinckley Institute Student Alliance-is currently composed of a core group of six campus organizations: College Democrats; College Republicans; the Associated Students of the University of Utah's Government Relations Board; Public Interest Advocacy; Service Politics; and Civic Engagement (SPaCe) and VoteProject.
While HISA is brand new, the idea behind the alliance is rooted in a Hinckley Institute student committee that disappeared in the early '90s.
"Basically, the idea is to get all the major politically active groups around the same table," said HISA President Bryson Morgan. Morgan and the Hinckley Institute have been piecing together the new group since last spring.
"The idea came from when I was working with voter registration stuff with VoteProject," Morgan said. "It was absolutely impossible to get a hold of all the different groups to find out what they were doing. The collaboration just wasn't there."
Morgan said he turned to the Hinckley Institute rather than ASUU to foster his idea for logistical reasons.
"The danger with ASUU is your ideas can be totally scrapped the next year, but the Hinckley Institute was looking for ways to get students more involved," Morgan said. "With (Hinckley Director) Kirk (Jowers) coming in, he's always looking for ways to build students up around the Hinckley Institute."
Some of the perks that groups receive for joining HISA include a stipend, keys to use a central office just across the hall from the Hinckley Caucus Room, assistance with advertising from a publicity committee and the increased legitimacy that comes with the Hinckley Institute title.
Yana Jurovitzki, president of the U's College Republicans, said the central office is a welcome addition, and though it was just recently opened for use by HISA groups, the College Republicans have already used it for meetings.
Breanne Miller, president of College Democrats, said that while everything with HISA is new, events during municipal elections this week will help establish the group. She expects HISA will take some weight off her shoulders.
"We have the publicity committee through HISA, so we can go through them for ideas and support. That way we can spend more time planning and less time just putting up fliers," Miller said.
"It's given us contact with other politically active groups and resources, like a Web site...and it'll be really good to be able to tell people 'this is where our office is,'" she said.
Morgan said HISA is mutually beneficial, as the institute of politics will likely get more students coming around because of the program.
"It's a good feeder program for our really good students to get involved with these student groups and have a way to build up their résumés and get more practical experience in politics," he said.
The presidents of the HISA organizations meet for an hour every other Wednesday to talk about what they are doing and see how everyone can help, Morgan said.
Each semester, HISA will put on one series of events, one major event or one general political engagement campaign.
The group's first series begins today with the "Democracy Begins with U" event. It will include an open-mic session from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. on the Union Patio and a live debate between College Republicans and College Democrats until 12:30 p.m.
For Election Day on Tuesday, the ASUU Government Relations Board will shuttle students to and from polling locations between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.
The shuttles will depart from the Union loop.
"(They'll be able to shuttle) about 10,000 students," Morgan said.
The series of events will culminate Thursday when HISA and the ASUU Presenter's Office show a politically oriented comedy, "Black Sheep," in the Hinckley Caucus Room (OSH 255) at 7 p.m.
"Three, four or five years down the road, it's really going to be healthy for groups and exciting for campus," Morgan said.
"If we can get that energy going on campus that is going at some other schools where College Democrats and College Republicans are thriving, (which) we've been missing just a little bit here at the U, I think this will help. They just need support."
s.gehrke@chronicle.utah.edu
