Eastern’s two politically charged student groups are under new leadership. The College Democrats and EIU Republicans recently elected new students to office. The positions are for the Fall to Spring 2008 school year.

The left

Ryan Kerch was elected president of the College Democrats.

“The reason I get involved is because I’m not one to just sit back and let other people determine things,” Kerch said. “As far as the EIU College Democrats go, one of our major goals for next year is to decrease student apathy toward politics.”

His plan for the group is to educate students and encourage them to stay informed on political issues.

The Democrats are also planning voter registration drives.

“(We’ll be) trying to get people out to vote for the candidates we support, especially Obama,” he said.

Chris Kromphardt is the vice president, Zack Plunkett is treasurer, Robert Grigsby is secretary and Eric Wilber is the sergeant-at-arms.

Kromphardt, a sophomore political science and philosophy double major, plans to go to law school.

“My interest in politics comes from an interest in the way our government functions,” he said. “There’s a lot of interesting nuances to politics and politicians and the study of it. I also like being a part of politics on the collegiate level because it gives me an opportunity to interact with other politically-minded students and to cooperate and hopefully make Eastern a more politically active campus.”

Travis Bounds, the former president for the College Democrats, is a senior political science major. He plans to attend Eastern for graduate school next year and to study abroad as well. Eventually, he hopes to get his doctoral degree.

Bounds is the current head of the Eastern students for Barack Obama.

The right

Kyle Ogden, the new president of the EIU Republicans, has similar interest in politics. Ogden is a freshman double majoring in finance and economics.

Ogden’s plans for next year include increasing interaction with other Illinois schools.

“I’m just going to try to increase membership and funds,” he said. “I want to get in touch with the U of I Republicans and do some events with them. I think we can do a lot for Coles County and surrounding areas,” Ogden said.

He hopes to work in banking and do agricultural lending once he graduates. He also wants to attend graduate school at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The junior biology major hopes to go to medical school when he graduates.

He said that his interest in politics stems from the fact that he helped with campaigns in Tuscola.

He also went to Boy’s State, a government leadership program, which helped to get him into politics.

The results of elections brought many new people to both parties. However, Lucas Quast has remained the vice president of the student Republicans for quite a while.

New officers for the Republicans include: Michael Kleen as treasurer, ex-president Justin Sinner as the executive adviser, Chad Meents as the public relations official and Travis Billiter as the information/technology official.