On Monday Jan. 20, Elon Votes hosted a watch party of the second inauguration of Donald Trump in Moseley Student Center as part of a year-long Active Citizen Series. The series aims to host events that foster civic engagement among students on campus. Previous events include the presidential and vice presidential debate watch parties, also hosted by Elon Votes.
Director of Outreach for Elon Votes and senior Allison Durand said Elon Votes wanted to provide a space for students to watch the inauguration and enhance civic engagement on campus. She noted how all of Elon Votes events have a similar goal in creating an open space for students to gather and experience political events together.
“Watching things like the inauguration, State of the Union addresses, attending forums with other leaders, all of that contributes to being civically engaged citizens,” she said.
Previous events in the Active Citizen Series had gatherings as large as 50 people, but the inauguration watch party had only five students in attendance. Other students walking through Moseley Student Center stopped for a few minutes to watch, but eventually moved on.
Freshman Matayah Pope said he believes events such as the watch party helps students stay connected and politically active on campus.
“I think events like this show that people need to stay more engaged, and people that are more engaged can be at least more active in the community space and have a better idea of what's going on in social and political realms,” he said.
In order to have students be aware of the inauguration watch party such as posting on social media, adding it to their website and being part of Vice President of Student Life Jon Dooley’s Sunday newsletter.
“Dr. Dooley is awesome at including our events in his weekly newsletter. I made sure I had an Instagram post about it last week. Those are kind of the two main vehicles,” Durand said. “Just trying to get other university offices to support us with that outreach.”
Durand said Elon Votes is hosting several events in the spring, such as a panel of elected officials and deliberative dialogues.
During the inauguration, performances by singers such as Carrie Underwood and speeches done by members of Congress such as Amy Klobuchar were featured before Trump was officially sworn in at noon.
Trump’s 30 minute inaugural address went through his plans to start his second term with issuing executive orders on a wide range of issues, including illegal immigration and renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America and stating the golden age of America has begun with his oath. His address gained the most attention from students walking through Moseley, with many stopping to watch and listen before continuing on.
Pope said he originally had no plans to watch the inauguration but decided to come to Moseley after realizing the event started at noon. He said he first heard about the event after reading Dooley’s Sunday newsletter.
“I felt this is a pretty historic one. I just figured it was a chance to see something that was going to be historically prominent for at least a handful of years,” he said.