Moravian University Catches Election Fever
Students, Faculty Encourage Community to Participate in Political Conversation
By: Kaytlyn Gordon ‘19
The 2016 presidential election has been marked by an outburst of social media posts, newspaper coverage, and television shows highlighting the heated debate between two dynamic candidates. The Moravian University community has been participating in this national conversation, striving to make student voices heard.
The student run Political Awareness Coalition (PAC) has been at the forefront of the University’s political conversations, discussing pressing issues and decisions in politics that affect the community. The club operates on four pillars: debate, bipartisanism, policy deliberation, and activism.
“The goal behind PAC is to increase political awareness on the Moravian University campus and the surrounding community. We want to make things fun, interactive, and show students that politics is not a boring topic,” says Thomas Brim '19, president of the Coalition. “We are a student-centered organization and our goal is to give students an opportunity to cultivate their teamwork, public speaking, event organizing, and debating skills.”
The Coalition helped organize the #MoravianVotes campaign, a collaborated effort between student organizations and faculty to register students, inform them about candidates, and get students out to the polls on November 8. So far, #MoravianVotes has helped register 135 students.
“The motivation behind the #MoravianVotes campaign was to get students interested in voting and to make them understand the importance of being apart of the electoral process,” Brim says. “Personally, I saw the disinterest and lack of awareness of politics and government among many people of our age group and it motivated me to try to bring about change.”
The Coalition also helped inform students by hosting a Mock Presidential Debate. The debate featured four students from the club who modeled their comments after Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Gary Johnson, and Jill Stein. They debated the economy, climate change, police brutality, foreign policy, and immigration.
“We had about 60 people attend the debate and most were students, with some deans and faculty in attendance as well,” says Woodrow Battle '19, vice president of the Coalition. “In my opinion, if ten people had showed up it would have still been a success because our goal is not to give people what they want to see necessarily, it’s to give them what they didn’t know they wanted to see. This process of creating interest in politics takes time and effort to grow into something substantial that will only benefit those who partake.”
Other campus organizations have been working to inform students about this election, including the Center for Intercultural Advancement and Global Inclusion. They hosted a Friday Forum called, “The 2016 US Elections as an International Event: Thoughts on What’s Happening.” The forum worked to stir community conversation about the election.
“The development of Friday Forums is based on consistent patterns of social injustice and the marginalization of entire groups of people in our society and around the world," says Christopher Hunt, director of Intercultural Advancement and Global Inclusion. "This initiative provides a platform and serves as a part of our need for ongoing institutional dialogue.”
Moravian University organizations have worked to create public conversation and encourage students to participate in the historical presidential campaign that has taken the social networking world by storm.
“By attending events around campus, registering to vote online, and coming to vote on election day November 8 you can become more immersed in the conversation that is going on all across the country,” Battle says.