By Antonia Lopez
Staff Writer
Students around the country will be voting in the presidential election in upcoming months, and many college campuses are preparing for this season.
On Nov. 5, United States citizens will vote to elect the 47th president of the United States. The current Republican candidate is former President Donald Trump and the Democratic candidates remaining are President Joe Biden and Marianne Williamson. The independent candidates are Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Cornel West and Jill Stine. Official candidates for the Republican, Democratic and Independent parties will not be confirmed until August.
This summer, Trevecca faculty, student development and spiritual life will begin preparations for the upcoming presidential election, which according to several on campus, has the potential to be divisive on a campus with students, faculty and staff who feel strongly about politics and religion.
“I see election seasons as opportunities for a place like Trevecca to stand apart as a different kind of community,” said Gernand. “I’m going to call us to that next year. I hope Trevecca can become an alternative vision in a culture where everybody’s tearing each other’s throats out.”
According to data collected by the Institute of Democracy and Higher Education for Tufts University, 66% of college students voted in the 2020 presidential election, up from 57% in 2016.
As college student voting is predicted to increase, Gabriela Colorado, rising SGA president, hopes students will get involved and is planning to offer resources for students and encourage them to exercise their voting rights.
“I want to create a sense of awareness,” said Colorado. “There’s a lot of people, not only young adults, that just don’t vote. I think that’s a big issue.” Gernand said this year’s chapel theme has set the stage for next year.
“This year has been a pretty good primer for us and what we really need as a community,” said Gernand. “We’ve spent a year focusing on God’s ability to pull us together as a community and reconcile us to one another, sometimes in light of even our wild differences.”
Although Gernand does not know what the topic for chapel will be next year, he knows how he plans to encourage the student body.
Gernand said that Trevecca’s student development team will be providing resources for voting and more information regarding the logistics.
Jessica Dykes, dean of student life, said preparations for the upcoming year and planning for future events will begin during the summer, but there is a planned voting registration event. Trevecca faculty have already been preparing to create spaces for conversation in the classroom.
“We want faculty to be able to talk about political topics, but we want it to be relevant to the subject matter,” said Tom Middendorf, university provost.
Middendorf said he wants to create conversations in classrooms but also respect the political views of students and faculty.
“[Faculty] always have conversations about the political landscape and how it’s impacting the university,” said Middendorf. “In the fall in our academic training, we’re going to talk to our faculty about it being a political season.”
In past elections, Trevecca faculty emphasized on educating students on how to vote as well as researching the candidates, said Middendorf.
Currently, Middendorf is focused on maintaining the sense of community through conversation, and other faculty members have taken steps towards that.
Jon Burch, Trevecca business professor, and Jonathan Bartling, vice president for academic affairs, organized a professional development session for faculty on April 16.
The goal for the session was to teach faculty how to have conversations about controversial topics using a curriculum called “Bridging the Gap.”
“What it does is helps leaders help people who have very different views on controversial topics like an election, find common ground and the ability to build relationships while disagreeing,” said Bartling.
Burch and Bartling first knew of the “Bridging the Gap” curriculum after attending a free conference led by Interfaith America, an organization that encourages leaders to unlock America’s religious diversity. The curriculum teaches participants how to have conversations about controversial topics while using active listening as a tool to prevent divisiveness and maintain community even with different beliefs.
A small group of Trevecca’s faculty and student development staff participated and were trained on the “Bridging the Gap” curriculum at the session on April 16. The session involved training from an Interfaith America member and a Trevecca student testimonial panel.
Bartling said the ultimate goal is to have faculty and students attend Interfaith America’s summer conference and bring that training into the fall.
“We recognize how critical it is that we prepare our campus for this,” said Bartling. “I think this is the venue that could really make a difference.”