By Nick Gray

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When he is not playing the part of “Grimey McConster” on college campuses across the state, Tyler Offerman is advocating political and environmental change on behalf of local organizations.

Offerman is a political event organizer for the Kentucky Student Environmental Coalition whose “Ass Kissing Booth” was stationed alongside a walkway Tuesday near the White Hall Classroom Building.

Offerman said the group’s setup was designed to give passing students a satirical take on current-day politics and inform them about the Coalition’s focus on renewable energy.

Offerman, a 25-year-old graduate of Florida Gulf Coast University, dressed in a suit and, in his “Grimey McConster” persona, told students in an “alarmingly honest” manner that if they donated money to his campaign, he would “support your cause and kiss your ass,” he said.

“A lot of what we are saying is that it’s not that young people don’t care (about) or understand (politics), it’s that they feel like they don’t have someone who is representing their views,” Offerman said. “They don’t have a dog in the fight.”

KSEC, a statewide student organization that works for an ecologically sustainable future, did not accept any money donations from students as the parody indicated, Offerman said. Instead, interested students signed a KSEC petition to pass a piece of state legislation that would increase investments in renewable energy.

More than 4,000 students from 17 colleges and universities around the state have signed the petition in more than a year, according to Offerman and KSEC member and international studies senior Ryan Hidalgo.

“It’s a lot of snickering and laughing, but I feel like we’ve had a lot of good conversations, for sure,” Offerman said. “Some people push back on the issue because of the environmental part of it, but there has not been any vocal opposition to the not-so-secret fact that politicians sell out for money.”

Human nutrition freshman Kaamela Samadi saw KSEC’s tent and said she signed the petition because she agreed with the group’s sarcastic approach.

“I think it was a great message about how democracy is being sold,” Samadi said. “I feel like both high school and college students should make themselves look more into what politicians stand for and what they believe in.”

Hidalgo has been a part of KSEC since the beginning of the semester and came up with the name of Offerman’s satirical persona. His focus during his short time at KSEC has been on events happening during this week’s “A Week of Action” across the state.

“Nobody has been offended and I am very happy about that,” Hidalgo said. “I was worried that maybe some people would take it the wrong way, but they really have not.”