Promoting political conversations around campus, two VanCougs created a new event series entitled Coug Convos, where students chat and engage in informative discussions during the critical weeks before the presidential election.
The event started one month before the Nov. 3 election and lasted from Oct. 6 through Oct. 27. Created by a partnership between the American Democracy Project and the Associated Students of WSU Vancouver, Coug Convos established a space for students to express their political opinions and create meaningful discourse among staff and peers.
Political science professor and co-creator of the event, Mark Stephan, serves as the ADP faculty lead on campus. While encouraging students to get involved in politics, Stephan stated Coug Convos is meant for educational discussions rather than debates.
“There has got to be some commitment to this civility or else this kind of conversation cannot happen. … [We are] trying to have just an open conversation with whoever arrives. … The desire is to be conversational rather than a debate. It is not a debate,” Stephan said.
Senior and public affairs major, Tom Holtslander, collaborated on the creation of Coug Convos. While also serving as the current internal director of legislative affairs for ASWSUV, Holtslander acknowledged political disagreements can inspire discomfort which sparked his inspiration for the series.
“I wanted to do Coug Convos and get people together to talk in a civil way, a facilitated way. We can help guide conversation but also have open different political ideologies, and have a legitimate discussion about certain issues,” Holtslander said.
Jesus Morfin-Hernandez, a freshman studying public affairs, said he was inspired to join one of the Coug Convos due to his fascination with politics. Morfin-Hernandez believes his generation has become more politically aware and engaged, especially as the election approached.
“Being [apart of] Generation Z, I feel we are definitely getting a lot more into politics because we see the state of which things are in and we recognize we have to do something about it. This is our country, this is our future,” Morfin-Hernandez explained.
While Holtslander thinks students may be growing sick of politics, he is in favor of promoting political discussion among students, viewing it as a necessity to build a strong sense of community.
“We’re kind of conditioned, early on, to not talk about two things in public to strangers, politics and religion. How are you going to get to know somebody and build community if you are not allowed to talk about the things that we hold so close to us?” Holtslander said.
Overall, both Stephan and Holtslander could see additional events like Coug Convos occur in the future and encourage the VanCoug community to continue civil discussion, remain respectful and be more open-minded to learning more about one another’s political perspectives.