UR students tune into election events on campus

Students and faculty gathered at several locations throughout the University of Richmond to watch the final showdown between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. 

The pre-watch party, held at Spider Hall in the Queally Athletics Center, was a collaboration between the Center for Civic Engagement and UR Athletics. 

Jacob Ellis, a senior on Richmond’s cross country team, has been planning this event for the past year with hopes of convincing more athletes to vote. Ellis said that student athletes across the country had practices canceled in order to encourage voting and civic engagement.  

“Richmond took that to heart, so we launched the Spiders Vote initiative in 2021,” Ellis said. “It is an ongoing effort to not only get student-athletes registered to vote, but also voting and engaging in community service.” 

Student-athletes across all sports were present at the event tonight. Along with the athletes, students from varying years and disciplines were also tuned into the event.

Sophomore Katherine Stobie attended the pre-watch party and said that this year’s election is particularly “polarizing.”

“My mom is a public school teacher, so the Department of Education is something I really want to protect,” Stobie said. “One of my sisters is a lesbian, and I am also queer, so I would like the right to marry whoever I want. And my eldest sister is chronically ill, and I want to make sure when she is off my parent’s insurance that she is going to be able to pay for her own medication.” 

Emil Burman, an exchange student from Sweden, emphasized the importance of American politics in an international context. 

“American elections are very impactful for Europe and the rest of the world, especially with the war going on in Ukraine,” Burman said. “A big question about this election is the talk of tariffs and taxes on imported goods, which will also impact Europe.” 

This was also true for Hugo Fontaine, an exchange student from France, who went to the pre-watch party due to an interest in America’s influence not only with Europe but the rest of the world. 

“Anything that happens is going to have repercussions at home,” he said.

As the pre-watch party came to a close, an official watch party began in the Whitehurst Living Room. The event is hosted by Pi Sigma Alpha, the national political science honor society, in collaboration with the UR College Democrats and College Republicans. 

Senior Maddie Fellner, president of Pi Sigma Alpha, organized the event and highlighted the importance of civic engagement and open discussion between both parties. 

“We are more than just our vote, especially during a time where things are really divisive and people are really anxious,” she said. “Whatever happens on this campus, we are all part of the Richmond community.” 

When asked about the most important issues in this election, students across party lines agreed that the economy, immigration, foreign policy, and reproductive rights were at the forefront.

First-year Liam Seeley felt this election has particular weight for both parties. 

“This would be the first woman president or the second non-consecutive term president, so I think there’s a lot of history riding on this,” Seeley said. 

Monti Datta, a professor of political science and the faculty advisor for Pi Sigma Alpha, said his biggest concern was civility and communication in an increasingly divided political sphere. 

“The real issue for me is our democratic process,” Datta said. ”There are particular issues at stake like abortion, immigration, but to some extent they are secondary to my concern that the left and the right are not engaging as much whereas a generation ago, I think there are things that we assumed about the democratic process that have vanished.” 

Datta discussed how social media has exacerbated the issue. Influential algorithms exploit these negative emotions and increase bullying, inflating egos and hate speech, he said.

“We need democracy with more mindfulness, democracy with more love, democracy with more compassion,” Datta said.  

Contact writers Ana Sufja at ana.sufja@richmond.edu, Melissa Chaparro at melissa.chaparro@richmond.edu, Thomas Ham at thomas.ham@richmond.edu and Celia Poag at celia.poag@richmond.edu.