The University held an Election Forum for students to engage in political discussion and learn how to talk about politics in a respectful manner during this presidential election year.
The forum was sponsored by the AU-SPLC and the League of Women Voters of East Alabama and gave students the opportunity to learn about issues, candidate and engaging in rational debate.
At the forum they discussed how to talk about politics in an ethical way, what transpired at the first presidential debate and the importance of other presidential debates to come.
Diana Eidson, assistant professor of rhetoric and composition, said the forum arose from an experience three Auburn students had.
“We had three Auburn students that represented the state of Alabama at an event at Dominican University in California,” Eidson said. “The University actually flew all the delegates out to California to participate in something called College Debate 2016.”
At College Debate 2016 they talked about the issues related, the sizable voter base and the importance of millennials in this year’s election, according to Eidson.
“At the debate they debated a number of issues and decided upon the ones that were really important,” Eidson said. They had people go to the issue of their choice and stand there. Certain ones were chosen to write questions for the whole forum to consider, so there is a question attached to each one of the issues that they selected.”
Emily Strobaugh, junior in english and global studies, said she was one of the delegates from the College Debate 2012 who spoke at the forum.
Eidson said Strobaugh talked with her peers about how this debate has brought many important issues forward.
She related the forum to the main theme of College Debate 2012 on how to conduct ethical, rational discourse with people who may not share your own views, Eidson said.
The forum showed students how to get their questions heard at the second debate by tweeting at Anderson Cooper, the moderator of the debate.
“One of the things we had students do is we gave them a post-it note and had them write down an issue and a question that they were really interested in submitting and we showed them a way to do that,” Eidson said.
Eidson said one question received by a student had to do with educational policy and how the U.S. would be competitive in the global economy, what would the presidential candidate would do to promote education at the federal level and how they would help the states improve educational outcomes.
“Some of the students were interested in having the third party candidates being a part of the debate and they were not pleased that the third party candidates were shut out of the debate,” Eidson said.
The forum taught students ways to get out of two party polarization and bring in third party voices to give people alternative choices.
“A lot of the millennials are interested in making the world a better place, but they feel like their voices don’t always matter,” Eidson said.
The forum featured guest speakers to talk about local and
state elections.
“The message was that everybody’s vote counts and people have long fought to
have their right to vote acknowledged and put into law,” Eidson said. “It is a
right, but it is one we want to take advantage of. Millennials are such a large
group now, they’re the future.”
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