With the 2008 presidential election season heating up, the Saint Louis University College Democrats and College Republicans are increasing their activities on and off campus.

Members of the College Republicans are preparing to welcome presidential candidate Sen. John McCain in a rally this weekend. Meanwhile, members of the College Dems executive board returned yesterday from the College Democrats of America’s national convention in Denver. Their convention took place while leaders of the Democratic Party gathered in Colorado for their quadrennial national convention.

“The convention was important because we learned a lot about improving our organization here on campus, which is especially vital because Missouri is a swing state,” said Lauren Khouri, president of the SLU College Dems.

The convention featured seminars about running College Democrats organizations on campus and fostering on growth and sustainability. Speakers included Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Convention and Newark City Mayor Cory Booker. Khouri said one of the biggest messages was emphasizing voter registration.

“It’s really important because it’s all young people getting involved,” said Michelle Rich, SLU College Dems publicist. “We heard many leaders of the Democratic party telling us how important it is for us to get involved. It was nice to hear that first hand, so now we can spread the message back here.”

Rich said the College Dems will make it a point to encourage voter registration this year.

“We’re taking the forms for people and turning them in ourselves,” said Rich. “It just makes it easy for them, so there is really no excuse not to vote.”

On Sunday, the SLU College Dems were able to attend the opening interfaith service for the Democratic National Convention, some of which took place in the same convention center. They also attended two caucuses, the Hispanic caucus and the Women’s caucus.

“It was really amazing to see everything come together on a national level,” said Khouri. “It was people from all different backgrounds coming together for a purpose. And that purpose is to elect Barack Obama.”

No one from SLU College Republicans executive board will be attending next week’s Republican National Convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn. Many members of the group and sympathizers, however, will be at a rally on Sunday, Aug. 31, in the St. Louis suburb of O’Fallon, Mo.

SLU College Republicans Preisdent Amy Kaufman expects some 60 people from the University to come.

“I’ve never seen this much enthusiasm on either the Republican or Democratic side,” Kaufman said. “I’ve never seen students, even high school kids, so involved. I think it has to do with both parties trying to reach the younger generation, and I think it’s paying off.”

In addition to McCain, former Republican presidential candidates Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney will make an appearance at the rally.

According to Kaufman, the event is supposed to take place shortly after McCain announces his pick for the vice presidential nomination, so it will be one of McCain’s first appearances with his new running mate.

Kaufman said that while many members of her executive board have been hard at work on the campaign for months, she recognizes that many students at SLU are just starting to pay attention to the upcoming presidential election.

“We’re going to reach out to students who haven’t previously been involved,” Kaufman said. “Grassroots work is really important … and so far we’ve done well.”