The College Democrats, College Republicans and Young Americans for Liberty joined together to engage in civic discussion about national political issues tonight in Yeager Recital Hall at the Center for the Arts.
The moderators, Brian Rea and Alex Mancuso, asked the representatives from each organization questions about controversial topics, such as the opioid crisis, the Second Amendment and the border wall.
The speakers said they were pleased their discussion was held in a calm and obedient manner — something not reflective of years past.
“It was a bipartisan effort to get our policy ideas out there. There really wasn’t argumentative behavior going on. No yelling, which has happened in the past,” said Warren Barrett, one of the representatives for College Republicans.
“We see a serious lack at Elon in cross-party discussion,” said Sven Byrnes, the representative for Young Americans for Liberty. “People start to raise their voice and it’s impossible to get your view across in a respectful manner and we’re interested in expanding that.”
But the parties were still able to communicate their stances to the audience of Elon students and faculty.
“I’m satisfied with the fact that we were able to find some sort of agreement across every issued we discussed,” said Mary Beth Rowell, speaker for College Democrats. “I’m more disappointed that Congress and our federal government can’t find an agreement when college students can, but maybe the world just isn’t that simple.”