One of the reasons Ella Kucera, vice president of communications for Elon’s student government, said SGA is prioritizing election events and campus climate this semester is to help make sure all students feel safe.
“There is a lot of division regarding politics and with students and belief systems,” Kucera said.
This Thursday, Sept. 5 as one of the first election events in the school year, SGA is cosponsoring a student issues forum with Elon News Network. This event, and others in the series, were planned by an Elon ad hoc committee co-chaired by Naeemah Clark, associate provost for inclusive excellence, and Jon Dooley, vice president for student life.
One of the goals of this committee was to see how best they could prepare the Elon community for active citizenship for a lifetime of civic engagement, according to the Elon 2024 Election Planning Report and Recommendations.
The concern of former committee member and Student Body President Britt Mobley ‘24, was that students won’t talk about their political beliefs in class, Clark said. Clark said from that conversation with Mobley, it became more pressing for there to be space at Elon to facilitate political conversations.
“We need to make sure students are getting socialized to having conversations, even conversations that you don't agree with,” Clark said. “If someone is very pro Kamala Harris or whatever, or pro Donald Trump, that doesn't mean ‘I can't talk to that person,’ it just means that ‘I need to be listening for learning and listening for understanding.’”
Another concern is that students don’t feel knowledgeable enough to contribute meaningfully to conversations, Clark said. But, Clark said, one of the goals of this event is to give students a chance to learn in a place without peer pressure.
Students also might feel like they can’t have a conversation without anger, if they are used to having political conversations on social media, Clark said.
“We've learned to be angry when someone disagrees with us,” Clark said. “What we at Elon are saying is, ‘no, we're not going to be angry, we're going to learn,’ and if we disagree, that's OK, but we're going to learn someone else's perspective.”
Kucera said in order to facilitate open conversations, the event will begin with an introduction and rules for the event and include conversations in small discussion groups.
“Hopefully people in smaller groups can feel less intimidated by just speaking out in loud crowds,” Kucera said. “They can feel more comfortable with more peers or faculty and staff with topics of discussion, so it's not just a whole free for all.”
Overall, the goal of the event is to increase civic engagement and give students a chance to feel heard, Kucera said.
“We do believe it's very important for all students to vote,” Kucera said. “No matter what their party is or what they feel like their opinions are, they should feel the right to safely vote and have that right to execute it.”