Conservative perspectives undervalued at Bluffton

In Fall 2016, on election night, I remember sitting in Bob’s Place watching the polls come in on the television, while overhearing a faculty and staff member discussing how they didn’t think Donald Trump would win, but if he did, it would be horrible. I still hear faculty making jokes about and dismissing President Trump as their president.

I remember the day after the election how proud and hopeful I was that Trump would become our 45th president but how gloomy and heavy hearted so many faculty and staff were. It was so prominent it affected some class structures.

I remember being so relieved to get off campus or be with family to be able to voice my frustrations and be reminded that although my beliefs are portrayed in a negative light on campus, it does not equate to who I am as a person.

I remember my friend sharing her experience being told by a housemate from another religiously affiliated university that Jesus didn’t love her because she had conservative beliefs, even though she was and still is a devout Christian.

I remember living in a group home in Washington, D.C., when the president-elect was inaugurated and how I frequently had “tough talks” with my housemates, which in turn strengthened my values and beliefs.

I remember another friend being interrupted by a staff member while in private conversation and said something along the lines of “we don’t talk about him here” when discussing the president a year into his term.

Everything above has shaped the environment that I and those who share my values have been forced to deal with and live in since arriving at Bluffton.

Reflecting on Forums I’ve attended, I see a common theme.

From my perspective, a lot of the Forum speakers and topics typically have a more liberal bias, and it seems like there’s rarely a Forum that lines up with my conservative beliefs, not to mention that there are 25 religious denominations represented on campus and most or all of the religious topics revolve around Mennonite values.

“I believe that many of our Forum topics and speakers are biased due to the fact that they only show the Mennonite side of issues,” said Bailey Baker, a junior early childhood education and intervention specialist double major from Toledo, Ohio. “They also connect to only a small group of students on campus.”

How Forums are chosen needs to change drastically to better include a wide range of topics, including more speakers from some of our most-populated majors like business, with 123 registered students, and health, fitness and sport science, with 118 registered students.

If you’re thinking, “Oh, this girl wants everything to be conservatively based,” that’s incorrect.

Rather, I would like to see more from both sides of the political spectrum because I think it is good for everyone to hear opposing views to strengthen and challenge their own. I think that as a campus that frequently claims to be a community of respect, we can often lack that value.

Not only do we sometimes lack a community of respect on campus, but also as a whole nation.

“Unfortunately, in the U.S., the country has been moving toward a trend of presenting extreme emotions and opinions in the place of fact and objective information, in an intentional effort to be divisive and polarizing,” said Deanna Barthlow-Potkanowicz, assistant professor of psychology.

I have heard many people make a statement like, “College is all about opening up one’s perspectives.” I feel like I have been challenged through opening up my mind to difference in opinions in college, but that act of challenging seems unbalanced.

“Marginalizing legitimate views only causes polarization and creates unnecessary animosity between people who otherwise would get along just fine,” described Michael Barrett, visiting professor of criminal justice. “Colleges particularly have an obligation to facilitate these sometimes difficult, but necessary, discussions.”

It seems like there could be more Forum topics related to our more prevalent majors, and sometimes that lack of topics comes from a lack of time, according to Dr. Gerald Mast, professor of communication and Forum director.

“Our Forum programs tend to be more skewed toward the humanities and social sciences—religion, literature, history, sociology, etc.,” Mast said. “I would wish to have more speakers that speak from the traditional scientific disciplines: physics, chemistry, biology, etc. I also realize that we have few Forums that deal with sports and athletics.”

But, is it a lack of time or a lack of priority?

I could see how these forum speakers could be more well received in the Bluffton University community because some of the speakers represent some of Bluffton’s values, but certainly not all of them.

The ideas expressed can help some students discover new ways of thinking; however, sometimes those ideas are not respectful or able to build community like they should. These conversations following Forums should bring up honest conversations about views, but can often leave students frustrated and belittled by the way those ideas were represented by the speakers.

“As any institution with particular predispositions, Bluffton will, inadvertently or otherwise, tend to present messages that align with its identity,” said Kenny Beeker, senior history and communication double major from McComb, Ohio. “I don’t think this is a bad thing. The important thing is that no one, regardless of political or religious belief, feels that they are being attacked by these messages.”

I agree completely with Beeker’s hopes, but it doesn’t always feel that way.

Don’t get me wrong, the Forum director has been going above and beyond the call of duty to acknowledge and act on our requests. However, he also told me that the Student Senate student representative was not at the past two Forum Committee meetings. Therefore students have not been adequately represented by the people we elected to represent us.

What’s the point of Student Senate representation if that doesn’t even happen, especially in an unbiased way?

I also wonder how one student representative on the Forum Committee can accurately represent the whole student body. I know that you can’t please everyone, but it seems like having at least more than one student representative could be beneficial.  

Travis Kiser, a junior exercise science major from Pierpont, Ohio, and I attended the Student Senate meeting last night to express our frustrations and discuss the representation issue with the Forum committee.

The Senate representative admitted to missing both Forum committee meetings, and the Senate as a whole seemed unaware of it.

I hope this incident can be corrected and prevented in the future.

Luckily, next year’s Civic Engagement theme is about learning how to have “tough talks.” So, I feel that now is the time to get more input from my peers since students are the ones who have to go to so many Forums to receive the credits needed to graduate.

On that note, I realize there are many ways to receive Arts and Lecture credits, but many students go to Forums due to the accessibility of Forums in their daily schedules, and traditional undergraduate students must attend 20 Forums no matter what. In addition, most other Arts and Lecture events are in the evenings or on the weekends when students have other commitments.

“Honestly, speaking for most of the student body, we go to Forum because we HAVE to, not because we WANT to,” stated Baker. “This feeling of having to go can change if Forums become more interesting with more interesting speakers and more interesting topics.”

Not only may students be more interested, but they may give the speaker the respectful attention they deserve.

“With bringing in different speakers, I hope there are less students seen doing homework, playing on their phones or listening to music,” said Kiser. “I hope there begins to be a shift in political bias in all the areas mentioned around campus and there is a shift in the speakers that are brought to Forums.”

Last year around this time, another Bluffton student wrote a story on Forum. We are not trying to make the same point, but are similar in the fact we as a community should address forum to have students be more engaged. If you would like to read more on that story, you can read it here.

I believe that if we are able to have more of a variety of speakers and topics that students would be more eager to attend Forums and more likely to be engaged.

I will be providing the Forum committee with several ideas for speakers and topics, and I welcome your recommendations for those upcoming Forums or Arts and Lecture credit speaking events. Contact me here.