Political Groups on MSU's Campus

There are several student political groups on Michigan State's campus, including the MSU College Democrats, the Young Americans for liberty, TPUSA, and the Young Democratic Socialists of America.

Some of these groups advocate for candidates who uphold similar beliefs as they do, while other groups focus more on educating students about the policies they believe in.

The MSU College Democrats is a group that partakes in various political activities around campus in order to advocate for issues that directly affect college students, according to Max Jones, a member of the group.

Jones said that the group focuses on advocacy for issues such as the rising cost of tuition, affordable housing, and taxes. Anyone on campus can join the group.

"Anyone who considers themselves a Democrat and is a college at Michigan State University can enter," he said. "So, that will range from people who are completely far left on the political scale who believe in socialism and whatnot, to people who are just slightly left of center."

Like the College Democrats, the Young Democratic Socialists urge to educate students and encourage them to vote. They have meetings and events that promote political activity on campus.

"We have general meetings about once every month and then we have other events in between then," said Patrick Dunstone, a member of the Democratic Socialists. "Our general meetings are open to the public and we have teach-ins and stuff like that if people just want to learn more."

Turning Point U.S.A (TPUSA), on the other hand, is a political group that focuses primarily on economic issues rather than social issues, according to Chrissy Clark, the president of the organization.

TPUSA tends to have a more Libertarian lean, which differentiates itself from the College Republicans, another political group on campus, according to Clark.

"Collectively I believe we stand as an organization that's not interested in fighting with people or taking these strong political stances," she said. "We're really focused mostly on educating students and teaching them why the policies we believe in could really be implemented into the system and be positive changes that kids could see beyond college."

All of these groups consider themselves to be in different locations on the so-called "political spectrum."

The College Democrats consider themselves to be on the liberal side of the political spectrum, while the Young Democratic Socialists consider to be much further to the left.

The College Republicans place themselves on the right side of the political spectrum, and TPUSA also associates with being more on the right, specifically economically. The Young Americans for Liberty sort of differentiates itself from the other conservative groups by being more on the authoritarian side of the compass.

Overall, the majority of MSU students lean towards the left of the political spectrum; 49 percent of students say that they identify as either democrats or liberals, while 22 percent identify as socialists or leftists and 12 percent consider themselves to be moderate but more on the left.

On the other end, 10 percent of MSU students identify as either republicans or conservatives, 5 percent identify as libertarian, and 2 percent consider themselves to be moderate but leaning more towards the right.