Syracuse University hosts community dialogue ahead of election season
Syracuse University hosts dialogue on election season
The event aimed to teach students how to facilitate civil conversations about the problems we all face.
An eclectic collection of Syracuse University students, professors and staff shuffled into Goldstein Auditorium on a warm Tuesday evening to attend “Life Together: A Community Conversation for Election Season and Beyond.”
The event aimed to teach students how to facilitate civil conversations about the problems we all face, which are intertwined with our identities as humans and Americans.
Some, like graduate student Ethan Engelhart, “came to engage in civic dialog and, honestly, to mingle and meet new people.”
“I was really interested in learning more about civic engagement in Syracuse and learning how to make open discussions with interviewees,” Ankit Bandyopadhyay, a graduate student at Newhouse, said.
The official event opened with a video featuring students retelling their stories about how they’ve engaged civically.
This video was followed by Gretchen Ritter, the Vice President of Civic Engagement and Education, who introduced the topic of the night: ” How do we get from us versus them to just us?”
Ritter identified the four key skills for the night and for becoming a more engaged and thoughtful member of civic discourse and engagement: listening, critical reasoning, advocacy and building to the common good.
Tina Nabatchi, a professor of public administration and international affairs, started introducing “the ground rules” for the evening, rules like, “create a space for everyone to share,” “respect each other and respect each other’s ideas,” and to “give everyone the benefit of the doubt.”
Nabatchi asked the attendees to discuss what they found to be the most pressing economic issues they faced. Each table had a facilitator, someone to keep the conversation within the rails of the ground rules and to keep the conversation’s momentum alive when it seemed to wane.
The tables discussed an array of issues from the rising cost of living to the issues with the American healthcare system, but a common thread seemed to cross the auditorium: student loans and the general cost of higher education, something Nabatchi would note when she called for the room’s attention.
The next segment was a panel discussion hosted by Margaret Talev, the Kramer Director at Syracuse University’s Institute for Democracy, Journalism and Citizenship. The panel included two guests, who were political campaign communication strategists on either side of the political spectrum.
But Talev relieved the crowd’s projected anxiety about a clashing of ideologies by starting the questions with a few softballs, including, “Are you guys friends?”
Lance Trover, the spokesperson for Gov. Doug Burgum’s Republican presidential campaign, and Meghan Hays, a former consultant and advisor to President Joe Biden, both answered yes, they are friends.
Both agreed that better workforce development is needed, specifically in trade careers — but the concurrence stopped there.
“I think we need to reduce regulations and allow people to prosper,” Trover said. “We need less regulation and less taxes, making it easier on people, small businesses to create jobs and thrive.”
But Hays disagreed: “Not everyone has an equal playing field, and I think the government’s role should be to make that playing field as even as possible.”
The largest chasm between the two came after Talev asked if they thought the political system is broken.
Hays began, “I think it’s broken. There has been more divisiveness, more vitriol that comes on TV, comments made on our Twitter accounts and the types of things that are said to us are probably things that weren’t said eight years ago.”
“We do have a great system here. It may not always work well, it’s messy,” Trover said. “Most people run for political office to do something good.”
Still, in keeping with the night sights theme, the disagreement was respectful, fostered in part by the two recognizing their similarities and differences.
Following the discussion, Nabatchi introduced the second question for the tables: “What should we do in our communities to promote economic opportunity and prosperity for all?”
This led groups to discuss equitable schooling, the imbalance of student loans, overarching tax reform, and changing federal funding and budgeting.
After the round of open-table discussion, Ritter and Rev. Brian Konkol discussed the ongoing effort to have Syracuse remain engaged in civic endeavors, mentioning that this event would not be a stand-alone effort but one of many in the coming months to instill civility in the community.
Students reacted positively to the event, with Bandyopadhyay saying he learned “how to tackle difficult conversations while maintaining goodwill with people.”
“I think that a lot of times at a school that is this big, we do feel really far apart, especially with a lot of assumptions that we have,” Sophie Clinton, a graduate student at the Maxwell School, said. “I think being able to leave here feeling hopeful and grateful and just happy that I was able to engage with really understanding people.”
Konkol touched on why this event is necessary and what students should carry forward beyond conversations across political spectrums and ideologies, saying students, attendees and people should “lead the service of common good.”