The College Democrats, the College Republicans and the Young Americans for Liberty held a debate on college related topics on Wednesday, Oct. 26 in Foy Auditorium at 7 p.m.
Each group had two representatives and submitted six questions covering three different policy topics: college affordability, sexual assault on campus and concealed carry on campus. Student media also submitted questions of their own. The Republicans were represented by Jake Baker and Branden Belser; the YAL by Troy Beckham and Daniel Bond; and the Democrats by Neema Ashou and Emily Hale.
The first topic of the evening was students’ right to carry concealed weapons on campus and Bond spoke for YAL.
“It is against your fundamental right not to be able to carry a gun on campus, especially if you have a concealed permit,” Bond said. “The whole point of being able to go through the concealed permit process is to make you a legitimate citizen that can carry a firearm and to just totally block that process is just against constitutional rights.”
Ashou responded on behalf of the Democrats and said he believed providing a gun free zone wouldn't fringe Second Amendment rights.
“What the Second Amendment gives you the right to do is the right to own a gun. It doesn’t give you the right to carry a gun wherever you please," Ashou said.
The second topic of the evening was college affordability, where the College Republicans responded to a question about whether affirmative action is fair.
“Affirmative action is in no way, shape or form fair," Baker said. "As a matter of fact, I would argue that it’s racist because it is allowing certain students to get a college degree over other students, simply because of their race, and that’s not fair at all. Frankly, I think that no matter anyone’s gender, no matter anyone’s skin color, they should be able to compete for that degree.”
The Democrats were the first to respond to the Republicans’ comments on affirmative action.
“I think the Republicans said our stance best, when they said there should be an equal opportunity, despite how you’re born," Hale said. "What we’re saying is that when you don’t have affirmative action, you’re ignoring the historical disadvantages that put certain groups of people with lesser access and we agree that how hard you work should translate to the opportunities that you have."
The final topic of the evening was sexual assault on campus. The Democrats answered a question about whether Greek organizations should do more to prevent the sexual assault often associated with them.
“Complacency is one of the biggest things that has been fueling sexual assault and rape culture,” Hale said. “I do believe that Greek organizations should be doing more, and it would not be difficult for them to do more.”
The Republicans gave their own response to this question.
“Here’s the issue with this question: we’re pointing the finger at the Greek organizations," Belser said. "This is a societal issue. Rape and sexual assault do not strictly happen in Greek organizations on college campuses. They happen around the world, everywhere.”
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