The UR Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) is an awareness organization on its third refounding at the University and is a chapter of the National SDS. Restarted in 2021, SDS welcomes students who want to work towards a “new society free of racism, sexism, heterosexism, classism, authoritarianism, war, and ecological devastation.”
Each chapter of SDS varies in organizational structure based on their constitution. UR’s chapter doesn’t have a president, vice president, or secretary; rather, there are chairs who focus on specific aspects of running the club, like the Business Chair Somes Schwinghammer (‘25), and Organizing Chair Elena Perez (‘26 T5).
They’re a chapter striving to bring awareness to social justice issues in methods other than traditional politics.
“We are not affiliated with a political party, we are not affiliated with any specific political ideology outside of […] broad strokes like left progressive. I’d say like [farther] than that, if you want to make positive change for people, you’re welcome to SDS.” Schwinghammer explained.
The club will never explicitly work with College Democrats or Republicans due to SDS’s belief that electoral politics is not more than a means to an end. SDS will never endorse a candidate running for student council, city council, state senate — it’s not what they do. Wanting change, learning, and taking action does not make SDS a political organization, which is a common misunderstanding on campus.
“We try to keep out of electoral politics as much as possible and focus our energy on community organizing instead,” Schwinghammer said.
The organization isn’t focused on one general issue.
“We are broadly leftist, broadly progressive, and we focus on what’s relevant at the moment,” Perez said.
In Spring 2023, SDS had a campaign focusing on abortion justice. Collaborating with the College Feminists and UR Student Health Advisory Committee, they held a roundtable with local representatives from Planned Parenthood and the Socialist Feminist Committee of the Rochester Democratic Socialists of America (ROC DSA). They also organized a panel and subsequent march.
“Through that campaign where we worked with UR Student Health Advisory Committee and College Feminists, we ended up getting the vending machine set up in the front of UHS that gives out Plan B and contraceptives,” Schwinghammer explained.
After the abortion justice campaign, SDS moved on to housing justice, holding their first encampment that same spring. The housing justice campaign was focused on bringing awareness to the University’s limited housing situation on campus and forcing students to live off campus, contributing to the gentrification of the surrounding communities.
The following semester, in Fall 2023, SDS worked with Students for Justice for Palestine (SJP) to help with the Gaza Solidarity Encampment. The encampment’s purpose was to encourage the University to call for a ceasefire in the Israel-Palestine conflict and call for academic divestment.
“We basically went hand in hand with [SJP] for the encampment, because it just so happened that we had done this the year before in a much smaller setting,” Schwinghammer said.
The current focus for SDS is their campaign for Good Cause eviction protections.
Perez explained what Good Cause eviction is. “In the city of Rochester, the landlord has the option to, at the end of the year, to just not renew the lease. So, you know, the renter could have been the perfect tenant, no bad marks on the record, no nothing. And then the landlord just does not renew your lease, and all of a sudden you’re homeless. So Good Cause eviction, the bill that is trying to get passed, says you have to have violated the lease in order for your landlord to just terminate your lease like that.”
Good Cause eviction legislation would stop landlords from kicking out tenants and replacing them with higher-paying ones, which is especially important in an area like Rochester, where there is a large population of wealthy college students who can have their family pay the higher prices the landlords set. SDS organized tabling in Hirst, a phone bank, and a joint trip to a city council meeting to support the legislation.
UR’s SDS is one of many chapters located all over the country that are a part of the National SDS. Schwinghammer described the National SDS role as one to “support local chapters in information sharing, in training, and in forming a sense of community.” The National SDS does not dictate what each chapter campaigns on, though it promotes unity and communication between chapters.
One of the ways that the National SDS helps to form a community throughout the country is with the National Convention, which occurred in Denver on Oct. 12 and Oct. 13. UR had three students attend: Organizing Chair Elena Perez, Education Chair Mirjalol Mirsaburov, and Business Chair Somes Schwinghammer. The convention brought together students from all over the country to attend talks, workshops, and connect with other SDS chapters. The National Convention also saw the approval of a new National Council and the election of the first National Officers since the SDS refounding in 2008. Schwinghammer was elected as the National Secretary at the convention, giving him and the University’s chapter a seat at the table on a national level.
“This year, myself, a student from Florida, a student from Minnesota, and a student from Chicago all basically came together and said, ‘Okay, let’s fix this.’ So we wrote basically a new constitution, points of unity, and put that forward at the convention, and it passed unanimously,” Schwinghammer said.
Schwinghammer’s role as Secretary of the National SDS will consist of note-taking, decision-making, and figuring out the true size of SDS as an organization.
SDS will continue their campaigns and push for awareness on important issues for students.
