A Utah Republican club may seem redundant, but the club’s chapter at UVU is looking to do more than just maintain the status quo and hope everything stays the same.
The UVU College Republicans is one of the chapters of college students looking to share and strengthen their views with other college students.
There are three main goals of the club. The first is to promote and elect Republicans at the state and federal level. The next is study and adhere to the Constitution of the United States. Last is to commit to volunteer work in the community.
Austin Firth, the UVU chapter president, said that the most important goal is the last one. He also said that anyone who wants to come to the club should “commit to serve more than anything.”
“Conservatives need to go out and change the world for the better,” said Charles Hall, the executive vice president.
The UVU chapter is only about a year and a half old, which is surprisingly young for a state with deep Republican roots.
Meetings for the club are weekly or bi-weekly and Firth said that attendance at the meetings isn’t to have people become Republicans, but to educate people and help them become involved in politics.
The meetings will cover the economy, social issues, foreign policy and other political issues. They will have guest speakers that will focus on specific topics in their expertise.
The focus is for anyone that is part of the Republican party, from the mild conservative to tea party members.
“We want to promote not just conservatives getting together,” Hall said. “We are the Republican party on campus.”
While any political choice creates an automatic separation from the other party, the club isn’t about fighting with other views, and sometimes even encourages them.
“[We] see beyond partisanship. Issues are higher than left and right,” Firth said.
The club just launched a new website, www.uvucr.org, which contains information about meeting times and different events that the club is involved in.
The new website was created to be more official and become a base for people to visit. It also gives members a chance to be more informed.
They have a fundraiser coming up which revolves around concealed weapon permits. There are also two service projects that they plan on holding this semester. For more information view their website.
