Campuses Tout Party Elections

Some former and current student leaders say parties divide student populations and can make it difficult to get things done on the campuses, while others say parties can be beneficial.

Student political groups are not a new fad on college campuses. The groups began to form on the UNC campus in the 1800s with the Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies.

Political parties grew on the campus in the 1900s and continued until the election of independent candidate Thomas Bello, who was elected UNC student body president in 1970.

Today, all UNC student candidates run independently.

Robert Spearman, UNC student body president for the 1964-65 school year, said two parties existed when he ran for student government. "I ran for student body president in the spring of 1964," Spearman said. "At that time, there were two parties, the University party and the Students party."

A member of the University party, Spearman said students had the option of running as independent candidates, but did not remember any student doing so. "Back at the time I was running, I don't have any recollections of anyone running as an independent," he said.

Taking their cues from national parties, campus political groups held conventions to rally student support, Spearman said. "In a terribly rough way, it was like the Democrats and the Republicans," he said. "Each of those two political parties had a convention which many students attended."

Spearman said he believed the competition between the campus parties meant that each one had to work hard to nominate quality candidates who would discuss a wide variety of issues.

"Having the rivalry between the two (parties) was probably helpful in getting many issues on the table."

Some of the issues debated during the 1960s included a campaign for reversing a ban on speakers who were labeled Communists and the promotion of diversity on campus.

Spearman said the late Kellis Parker, one of the first black students to integrate UNC in 1961, added to the diversity of student leaders when Parker ran on the University ticket and was elected as a member to the National Student Association -- currently known as the United States Students Association.

While political parties at UNC began to fade in the 1970s, the practice is still popular on other campuses.

George Kramer, the University of Florida's student body president, said he favors political parties because he believes students tend to form groups.

Kramer said political parties help students run more successful campaigns because the candidates are united by similar interests and their collective opinions are passed along to voters.

"When we run, we run with 40 senators, so it's the president, the vice president, treasurer and the senators," Kramer said. "By creating parties, you may not be able to meet every individual who is running, but you get a sense of the ideas they have."

Kramer added that he believes the presence of political parties helps to put focus on issues that are important to the student body. "I think what the party system does is show what are the priorities."

But student leaders at other colleges say that while political parties might be effective at larger universities, they are not needed on all campuses.

Amanda Carlson, Wake Forest University's student body president, said she believes political parties are divisive and make it difficult to discuss important issues without leaders splitting along party lines. "Students need to band together and be one,"she said. "If we were divided among ourselves, I don't think we would be as effective."

Carlson also said she believes the size of Wake Forest's student population is another reason she is opposed to political parties on campus.

Carlson said she thinks political parties might be useful at larger universities where students can associate the ideas of a particular candidate with their party.

"If we were a bigger campus, I think that it, the party system, would be a valuable tool."

But Carlson said, in the end, voters should work hard to know the individual ideas of each candidate. "Ultimately, I think it's better if you know the person and what they stand for."

She also said that political parties might lead some candidates to depend too much on their party to support their campaign. "You're supposed to run on your own manpower, your own ticket."

The State & National Editor can be reached at stntdesk@unc.edu.