Conservative and liberal college students at two small Midwest universities have been assembly each month to speak politics, whereas training listening and avoiding making assumptions concerning the different aspect.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
This yr, school campuses have been on the middle for debates over free speech. College students at two small universities within the Midwest are engaged on a unique strategy. One college is generally liberal. The opposite is generally conservative. College students meet every month to speak politics, follow listening and likewise avoiding assumptions about how the opposite aspect thinks. Catharine Richert with member station Minnesota Public Radio went to a latest assembly.
CATHARINE RICHERT, BYLINE: Normally, this group talks politics over a meal. However on this night time, the assembly is at a Saint Paul bowling alley within the basement of a bar. There are murals and previous greenback payments on the wall. As she slips on her bowling footwear, Mena Feleke recollects the second she realized her liberal school campus was type of an mental bubble.
MENA FELEKE: My freshman yr, a great good friend of mine truly transferred as a result of he did not really feel like he was in a position to specific his opinions and be capable to disagree with the individuals on campus.
RICHERT: She’s a senior at Macalester Faculty, a personal liberal arts college with about 2,000 college students. Most of them are liberal, and so is she. Feleke says there’s not a whole lot of room for political disagreement because of this, and he or she desires to be a part of altering that tradition.
FELEKE: I needed to have the ability to be in an atmosphere the place I may have tough conversations after which deliver the abilities that I realized from this group again to campus.
RICHERT: This night time, she’s joined by a number of different Macalester college students and a bunch from close by College of Northwestern, which has about 3,200 college students. It is a Christian college the place most college students are conservative. One in all them is Jenny Liang, a senior. She’s actually into politics and he or she desires to make a profession out of it. She’s labored on 5 campaigns in simply the final two years. And she or he says assembly with liberal college students has reshaped how she may strategy the job.
JENNY LIANG: I really feel like a whole lot of politicians see the world as, like, black and white, whereas the voters, the vast majority of the voters see it in, like, shades of grey. So I really feel like, by being so polarized, they type of neglect to see the nuances. And that is what a whole lot of the voters need.
RICHERT: The group did speak concerning the presidential election, however their conferences focus extra on discovering widespread floor and shared life experiences. Corbin Hoornbeek, president of College of Northwestern, says whereas his college students are politically very totally different from Macalester’s, these conferences are useful.
CORBIN HOORNBEEK: Our college students share a whole lot of the identical coronary heart and concern for the world. What if? Is it attainable a reasonably liberal college and a reasonably conservative college may sit down on the desk and be taught to have constructive and civil conversations collectively concerning the world?
RICHERT: Macalester President Suzanne Rivera can also be on the bowling occasion. She says being open to political range is a ability that is essential to be taught.
SUZANNE RIVERA: I do not assume it is our job in larger schooling to vow 100% consolation always. I believe rising and stretching requires often entering into areas that make you uncomfortable.
RICHERT: Macalester junior Freeman Boda says the conferences have modified the way in which he digests social media. Just a few months in the past, he was studying a newspaper article that talked about this group. He says the feedback have been vitriolic. They accused Boda and his fellow college students of sanewashing, this concept that making an excessive thought or individual appear regular is weak, like a concession.
When you’d seen these feedback, like, a yr in the past earlier than…
FREEMAN BODA: I might’ve agreed, yeah. I might’ve utterly – I would’ve been a kind of feedback. So I believe altering somebody’s thoughts begins with having a connection exterior of politics, and that is what I’ve actually loved right here.
RICHERT: For the subsequent hour, there’s not a lot speak of politics. The temper is mild. The scholars will eat burgers and fries and cheer one another on whether or not they rating or not.
For NPR Information, I am Catharine Richert in Saint Paul.
(SOUNDBITE OF PENGUIN CAFE’S “BLUEJAY”)
Copyright © 2025 NPR. All rights reserved. Go to our web site phrases of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for additional data.
Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts might range. Transcript textual content could also be revised to appropriate errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org could also be edited after its authentic broadcast or publication. The authoritative document of NPR’s programming is the audio document.
