Wharton junior Sean Egan, newly elected president of Penn College Republicans, sat down with The Daily Pennsylvanian to discuss the election, his goals and plans for the coming year.
Daily Pennsylvanian: How did you get involved in Penn College Republicans?
Sean Egan: I guess it was in my sophomore year. I had a few friends who were in the group [and] they brought me to some meetings, some of the events. I found the group was a really social group; it was a group that had the same interests that I did. I decided to get involved — I ran for a board position. Last year I served as director of political engagement and I had a really great time reaching out to elected officials, folks who were out of office, and now in the private sector, inviting them to come to Penn. I thought those experiences were really fulfilling.
Especially on a campus like Penn where there isn’t much of a conservative voice, I think we are a really unique enclave here. I enjoyed the work I did last year and ultimately decided I thought it would be a good idea to run for president.
DP: What was it like being part of the group during the election in November?
SE: It was very interesting. There were definitely a lot of diverse opinions on the board and in the group in general. Some people were really strongly for now President-elect Donald Trump, some people decided to end up voting for Hillary, some people voted for a third-party candidate. It was really interesting to see how we had a responsibility as a [College Republicans] group to support conservative ideas on campus, but what the right way to approach the election [was] ... it was difficult. I think ultimately what we ended up doing was what we had to do, and in hindsight it worked out pretty well I think.
DP: What are your goals for the coming year?
SE: My goals are to bring at least three high-profile speakers on campus next semester. In the fall, we’d like to do the same. Socially we really hope to expand the group even further. There’s a lot of people called closet conservatives here at Penn [and] we want to have them know about things we’re doing here on campus and we want to have them come join our group, come talk about what it’s like to be a conservative on campus.
We just really want more of a ... we want to continue growing the group. Last year [College and Wharton senior and former president] Jennifer Knesbach did a great job leading College Republicans, and the group is in a great place socially right now. We want to keep expanding that. I’m really excited about the board we have this year. They’re extremely involved in a whole bunch of extracurricular and Greek life activities. I think that they’re going to do a great job inviting new members into the club and we’re really looking forward to that.
DP: Will the group dynamic be any different this year coming off of an election? Does that change what you want to do?
SE: It definitely changes [what we want to do] a lot. When it’s an election cycle typically you’re focusing a lot more on doing flyering on Locust, doing joint events with the campaign, and maybe less so from the speaker side of things. For example, last semester we did a lot of flyering, a lot of work with the Pat Toomey campaign. That was great but ... this not being an election [year] coming up, we’ll be able to focus more on the social [aspect] and bringing speakers.
DP: Is there anything that you want people to know about the group that they might not know?
SE: Definitely. I think that it’s really important to note that College Republicans is excited about President-elect Trump’s transition — we’re hopeful for his presidency. We know there’s been a lot of controversy on campus, on campuses around the country in general. We just ask that people remain respectful. We are choosing to be very optimistic about this.
Hopefully sometime within the next year we’ll have President Trump here on campus … once he settles in I’m sure he’d love to come back to Penn. His family has been so involved with the school. As far as I’m concerned, President-elect Trump is always welcome on campus. We’d love to co-sponsor an event with him. We’re looking to build some strong relationships with his administration — we’ve done a lot of outreach to them. And I’m hoping that we can have a lot of these very distinguished officials, some of the folks he’s announced for his cabinet, here on campus [so] we can have really fruitful conversations about politics and about the future of our country.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
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