By Tina Korbe

When conservative activist Matthew Cummings approached UA students this fall to form a Young Conservatives group on campus, at least one was immediately receptive.

Cummings, a field representative for the Leadership Institute, an organization that supports conservative student groups and publications on college campuses, found a natural ally in Nick Pianalto, a junior political science major who thinks the conservative cause is more important now than ever.

Pianalto eventually became the president of the UA Young Conservatives.

Now, he hopes a conservative presence on campus will remind his peers that an additional ideological option exists.

“It seems like the Republican Party doesn’t really stand for anything right now,” Pianalto said. “I think it’s important that we let college students know there is another option.”

More than 50 students are already on the Young Conservatives e-mail list-serv, and Pianalto thinks the group will continue to grow as more and more students learn what conservatives actually believe.

“If we educate enough people about the platform of the conservative party, we can get a lot of people involved,” Pianalto said.

What is that platform?

“It all starts with personal responsibility,” Pianalto said.

That message resonates with freshman criminal justice major Michael Thrasher and sophomore journalism major Brady Holzhauer, at least.

Thrasher’s concerned about gun control and the war effort, while Holzhauer is worried about the economy and health care – but they both believe the personal and private approach is more effective than the governmental and public.

“The best way for the government to handle the economy is to get out of it,” Holzhauer said. “The people are the ones with the money and we’re the ones who need to teach ourselves how to handle our money.”

Because they identify so strongly with the core conservative value of smaller government, neither Thrasher nor Holzhauer hesitated to join the Young Conservatives – but they recognize that now is not exactly the political era of “Less is more.”

“Whether it’s housing or banking,” Holzhauer said, “there’s so much red tape nobody can get anything done anymore.”

Not even the Young Conservatives can escape red tape, though: The group is still in the process of becoming a Registered Student Organization.