Democratic National Convetion Live Tweet!

Be sure to follow our twitter account throughout the DNC as we will be live-tweeting as many speeches as possible!

Welcome back, Terps!

We here at College Dems are getting ready for a big semester. Be sure to stop by our table at the First Look Fair, like us on Facebook, follow us on twitter, and sign up for our mailing list to be the first to know what we've got planned.

Year In Review: 2011-2012 Edition

It has been quite the year here with the UMD College Democrats. We have attended and hosted many wonderful events and really got ourselves ready for the election in November.


In September, we were honored to be invited to the White House to attend President Obama's Rose Garden speech during which he announced his plan for economic growth in order to fund the American Jobs Act. Later in that same month, we welcomed many new members to our executive board who joined us in bringing interesting events to College Park.

Members of the executive board at the White House.

This past fall, we also hosted Nick DiPasquale, the director of the Chesapeake Bay Program for a presentation about the current state of the environment in the Chesapeake Bay area and what we, as students and activists, can do to help. We also attended a campaign rally with Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee and several Maryland politicians to get fired up for the election. Steny Hoyer also visited campus and a few of our members attended the town hall meeting he held in STAMP.

Campaign rally with Debbie Wasserman-Schultz.

In the spring semester we were again invited to an event with President Obama. We went to his rally at PG Community College on energy. Some of us stood behind the President and were on screen the entire time. The others were on the floor and were able to shake his hand at the end of the rally. We also hosted State Senators Brian Frosh and Jim Rosapepe as well as Senator John Sarbanes. OFA stopped by to one of our meetings to discuss the Obama campaign and how we can get involved.

The biggest event of the semester for us was the Rally for Affordable Higher Education that we, along with other student groups, held on McKeldin Mall in response to the state's Doomsday Budget that would have caused a tuition increase of at least 10%. Our efforts paid off and a special session of the MGA was called and a budget was passed.

State Senator Rich Madaleno speaks at the rally.

Towards the very end of the semester, we launched our Why I'm In campaign in support of President Obama's re-election campaign.

In addition to all the great events we hosted, we also regularly held discussion-based meetings where members are invited to talk about how they stand on various issues. We also started having joint meetings with the College Republicans where we had informal debates about different topics.

We have a very big semester coming up with the election so we hope you all enjoy your summer and come back to College Park ready for the election in November!

Congratulations to our newly elected officers!

Tonight we held our elections for the four elected positions in our group. The results are as follows:

Tyler Grote, President
Paola Henry, Vice President
Joshua Dowling, Secretary
Kyle Theilacker, Campus Liaison

We are sure you will serve us well!

To anyone looking to get involved in our group next year, send an email to collegedems.umd[at]gmail.com and let us now so we can add you to our mailing list. We will be holding interviews for the other positions on our executive board during the first month of the fall semester, so be sure to be on the lookout for information regarding those positions.

Why I'm In 2012

In a previous post, we announced our Why I'm In campaign. We are now encouraging people from all over the country to create their own submissions to tell us why they are supporting Barack Obama in the 2012 election.

To create a submission, either visit the Why I'm In Tumblr or like us on Facebook. Also be sure to invite your friends to join in, as well.

A Special Session in the Works

After meeting with Senate President Miller and Speaker Busch this morning, Governor O'Malley tweeted that he is "hopeful we'll resolve the budget issues."

In talking with the press, he also stressed the importance of keeping the budget issue separate from the debate over the future of gaming, as many people have made the accusation that Senate President Miller's insistence on debating a bill concerning gaming is what ultimately led to the failure to pass a balanced budget. The Maryland General Assembly will likely meet once in May to resolve the budget issue and again later in the summer to discuss the future of gaming.

While there is no special session currently scheduled, this is an excellent first step in resolving the issue.

Read more about the meeting in this article from the Baltimore Sun.

Rally to Prevent the 10% Tuition Increase: The Aftermath

Today, more than 100 University of Maryland students came together on McKeldin Mall to let Governor O'Malley and the Maryland General Assembly that keeping higher education affordable in Maryland should be a top priority.

We would like to say a special thanks to State Senator Rich Madaleno for coming out and supporting our cause. It is reassuring to know we have such allies in Annapolis. We would also like to thank students Rosa Abraha and Samantha Durdock for speaking for the thousands of UMD students whose lives would be drastically affected by the proposed tuition increase.

Finally, this could not have happened without the hard work of you, the students. Everyone who made phone calls, passed out flyers, sent out Facebook invites, and showed up today are the ones who made this all possible.

Our job is not done yet, however! Contact Governor O'Malley and your state representatives and let them know that you will continue to fight for an affordable education!

Be sure to check out our Facebook album for pictures from the event.

News articles about the rally:

• University of Maryland Students Protest 'Doomsday Budget' Plan--WBAL
• UMD Students Rally Against "Doomsday" State Budget--NBC Washington
• College Park Students Protest Budget, Which Cuts Higher Education Funds--CBS Baltimore
• Time to Rally--The Diamondback
• UMD Students Protest Possible Tuition Hikes Under 'Doomsday' Budget--The Gazette
• The event was also featured on the front page of The Washington Post's Metro section. Click the photo to enlarge