"Speak Easy" is a campus must!

Champlain College has a vibrant community. If you were on campus at all this week, you would have noticed the annual “Tent City” being put on my COTS on the Aiken Green. You might have noticed the brave girls parked in front of the cafeteria obtaining signatures to raise awareness of the situation in Darfur. There really are so many groups on campus that do not receive enough credit for what they seek to accomplish. So, we want to take a second and highlight one particular group.

“Speak Easy is a student club dedicated to getting staff, faculty and students to talk to each other – about anything at all. Not a public speaking forum! Speak Easy is more like an interesting cocktail party (but without cocktails). Come talk or listen to whatever or whomever you want.

Fresh coffee and other liquid libations, the finest cheeses and other sundries Burlington has to offer, and the best conversations on campus.”

Yesterday, three members of the College Republicans decided venture on over to the Fire Side Lounge to check out what the group had to offer. [And of course enjoy a bit of the delicious food] They were quite surprised to the depth of respect they received as College Republicans, despite the clear political ideology differences. When the conversations turned political - it was became more of a free exchange of thoughts and ideas rather than a Republican/Democrat bash-a-thon.

One student, who was also participating in “Tent City,” mentioned to the CRs that she liked the idea of a more intellectual dialect on campus. We'd like to implore her to start a College Democrat on campus. We believe that all sides should be represented fairly, and correctly. Who knows, maybe a College Democrat group could lead to a few healthy debates as we head into the very important 2008 elections.

Kristin, Randy, and Jeff would like to thank Professor Pepin and Brendan Ford for hosting “Speak Easy,” and we’d like to encourage all of our members, students, faculty and staff to attend this group. There next meeting will be after Thanksgiving on November 27^th from 2:00pm-5:00pm in the Fire Side lounge.

And don't forget to checkout the “Speak Easy” Facebook group!

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Over the next couple of weeks, we will spend a little time talking about the Presidential election coming up. We’re do our best to represent the candidates point of views, and encourage you to read the candidates positions with an open mind.