Democrats president new to party

President of IU College Democrats Cassidy Cloyd, bleeds blue, but it took her 19 years and a Y103 course with Professor Gerald Wright to realize it.\nThe junior from Indiana grew up in a proudly red Republican family in a proudly Republican community, she said.\nBut when she arrived at IU as a freshman in the fall of 1998, Cloyd said she didn't feel she knew enough about politics to identify herself with any one party.\nThen came her introduction to American politics class. The course, and Wright's instruction, Cloyd said, helped her clarify Republicans' and Democrats' underlying political philosophies. Cloyd emerged from the class with a better appreciation for the federal government's role in the United States and a Democratic heart, she said. She also picked up a political science major in addition to her already declared journalism major.\n"(Y103) interested me enough that I approached Professor Wright at the end of it to ask how I could get more involved," Cloyd said. "He suggested I join a campus political group, and that's how it started."\nThe Democratic party appealed to her, Cloyd added, because "it seemed to me to be the party that helps people." Cloyd said she doesn't mean to belittle the Republican party, but that she believes there must be some bigger entity to take care of the responsibility of helping others. She said she agrees with Democrats' belief that needs of the people are better met by federal programs than they would be if left up to individuals.\nBetween her many activities with College Democrats and her membership in Gamma Phi Beta sorority, Cloyd said she knows a lot of the faces she sees around campus. Friends say she is personable and approachable -- two traits important in anyone who works with or for politicians.\n"She's very hard-working and takes her schoolwork seriously, but she always makes time for her friends," said Cloyd's sorority sister Molly Vitangeli, a junior.\nCloyd's trip to the top of the College Democrats ladder has been a relatively short one. She served last year as College Democrats' greek liaison, going to sorority and fraternity houses to register voters and hand out Democratic literature. Last spring Cloyd decided she wanted to take her participation to the next level and ran for vice president. The campaign was a success and she prepared for a busy election year with senior Travis Thickstun, who had been re-elected as president.\nNo sooner than she began to get adjusted to the vice presidential seat, Thickstun found out he'd be heading to study and intern in Washington, D.C., during fall semester. Cloyd arranged with other College Democrats members soon after school started to plan this fall's election activities. When she took the stage in early September at the College Democrats mass meeting, Cloyd announced the various committees students could work on and plans for volunteering in local candidates' offices.\nCloyd herself is no stranger to Monroe County Democratic Headquarters. She has actively campaigned for Congressional Candidate Paul Perry by going door to door in Bloomington and answering calls on the phone lines in the evening. The hardest part of the job, Cloyd said, is having to turn down some requests for participation in local Democratic events. \n"I feel really bad, but we have to prioritize," she said.\nCollege Democrats junior Kal Mehta praised Cloyd's commitment to the group. \n"She really cares about the group ... for not having that much experience, I think she's doing a pretty good job, especially in an election year," he said. \nCloyd said she likes meeting the people she works for. In February, she and two other College Democrats bought plane tickets and flew out to New Hampshire where she was able to shake hands with her favorite boss, Al Gore.\nLast summer Cloyd was a campaign manager for state representative candidate Brian Sims; she said that experience taught her a good deal about how district races, especially fund-raising, work. Understanding the local political process has served her well as College Democrats' president, she said.