Club facilitates political discussions on campus

Throughout any given semester, Common Grounds holds events in the hopes of bringing students of different political backgrounds together. The club hosts faculty-led panels and round table discussions about controversial issues. 

The group was started in 2016 by Jessica Arends ’20 and Chelsea Smith ’20 along with Lia Howard, Ph.D., assistant professor of political science and liberal studies at Eastern University, who formerly taught at St. Joe’s. The current leader is Cassidy Kovisto ’21, a political science major and environmental sustainability minor.

Kovisto said the group sets guidelines for each discussion to ensure an effective and respectful conversation.

“We try to refrain from using the terms Democrat or Republican, anything that can over-politicize something,” Kovisto said. “We want to create a dialogue on campus by talking about political things without being too political about it.”

The guidelines are placed on the tables for each participant to see, according to Kovisto. These guidelines ask students to “be slow to speak, listen attentively, seek truth in what others are saying, disagree humbly, respectfully and thoughtfully and allow the dialogue the time it needs.” 

Common Grounds’ first event took place a week before the 2016 presidential election, allowing students the opportunity to stand up and say who they would vote for, including the primary candidates, and why. This activity was followed by round table discussions. 

According to Howard, the political party associations among students on Hawk Hill made it a good place to test out such an event.

“St. Joe’s has a significant representation from both political parties on campus, which is not always the case on college campuses.” Howard said. “Many campuses have one party that is dominant, so I thought that SJU would be a particularly interesting place to test if something like this would work well.”

Kovisto runs Common Grounds with help from Catherine Collins, a reference librarian and current  faculty advisor to the group. 

Collins agreed to take on the role after attending a Common Grounds event that was co-sponsored by the SJU Refugee & Immigrant Working Group during Mission Week in 2018. 

“Especially in the last couple of years, that’s a space that’s really needed,” Collins said. “It’s very welcome, especially in a place like a college campus where we should have the free exchange of ideas.”

A lot of political discourse today takes place on social media, which according to Howard, makes it easier for people to abandon their manners and to dehumanize one another.

“Giving people the opportunity to practice the art of conversation, to practice talking about important things, issues of belief, face to face is a skill you need to practice,” Howard said.

The group’s most recent event was on Feb. 21 during Mission Week, where participants discussed polarization, which refers to the deep divide between political parties in the U.S. 

A faculty panel consisting of Katherine Sibley, Ph.D., professor, director of American studies program, Laura Bucci, Ph.D., assistant professor of political science and Michael Kates, Ph.D., assistant professor of philosophy, presented on political polarization and its relation to their respective disciplines. 

Sibley used her time during the panel to discuss polarization in the past to put polarization today into perspective.

“I wouldn’t say this was a political discussion,” Sibley said. “It was about politics, but I don’t think anyone who came in came from any political perspective would be offended by anything. It was more looking at the history of certain issues, putting it in an international perspective or understanding how social media can affect things.”

Common Grounds’ next event will partner with SJU Fair Trade Initiative to discuss fair trade and its political implications. The event is set to take place during the first week in April.