It’s hard to deny that the student body at Connecticut College tends to lean more to the left than to the right when it comes to politics. What’s more unclear, though, is if there are actually fewer students with conservative points of view, or they’re simply not speaking up. In a survey done by the Princeton Review to find the 20 most politically active schools, liberal arts schools took home nine spots. Schools that are comparable to Connecticut College, such as Trinity, Vassar and Swarthmore, were all represented on the list. So what’s stopping Conn from being as politically active as possible, and representing all points of view on the modern political spectrum?
Until last semester, Conn has had one main and long-lasting political group on campus: Connecticut College Democrats, or CCDems. As to be expected from a political club on a college campus, their focuses range from encouraging voter registration to more specific local and national issues. However, the Democratic Party doesn’t represent everyone’s views. To represent students who do not align themselves with the ideals of the Democratic Party, Ben Friedman ’16 and Vladimir Chlouba ’16 have together founded a new club on campus, originally named Conservative Thought Group, but now instead called Social Thought Group. According to Friedman, the club isn’t meant to be a Republican’s club, but instead a welcoming and bipartisan organization for all members of the Conn community. “I want to welcome everyone,” said Friedman. “I don’t care if you’re conservative, liberal, Independent, Democrat. Wherever you stand on the list, just come on in.”
Though the original idea may have been inspired by the lack of conservative organizations on campus, this isn’t the direction the club plans on taking in the future. Chlouba cited one of the meetings from last semester as a moment in which students from two different political points of view came together: “We always want to hear diverse perspectives at our meetings. For example, we invited Fred McNulty ’15, a renowned member of Connecticut College Democrats, to sit down with us.” Afterwards, Chlouba and Friedman went on McNulty’s radio show.
“When I went both times, I was the only liberal,” explained McNulty. “There were sometimes one or two people who would have defined themselves as moderates, but they leaned conservatively. I have no issue debating with them. I had a good time. Obviously, I don’t like their politics, but I do think there are a good number of people on campus who are Republicans. I ended up inviting both of them on my show at separate points to continue this discussion.” This idea of sharing perspectives is something that the club wants to focus on and highlight as what makes them unique. Friedman summed this up simply, saying: “This school talks about how diverse it is – when you have a bunch of Democrats in the same room, you’re not going to learn very much.”
While the club has yet to hold any meetings this semester, this past spring the Social Thought Group held a number of events, with the largest being a debate on gun control. The meeting was held in the Larrabee common room, and close to 30 people attended — an exceptional turnout for any up-and-coming club on such a small campus like ours, and the overall large turnouts to all meetings have surprised Friedman. At the meetings, Friedman moderates the discussion, but typically leaves it up to the members to do most of the debating. For the gun control meeting, Friedman explained that “I would ask ‘should AR-15s be banned, and why?’ and obviously a lot of people would say no, yes, here’s why and gave their reasoning for it. So that’s kind of how we get started, and I would ask some questions and then people would ask follow up questions.” Though a turnout like that could be indicative of growing support for a club such as this, Friedman said that most of the advertising consisted of him simply sending around emails and talking to his friends. The meetings, too, seem to have a similar kind of organic feeling, with Friedman describing them as “open floor discussion[s].”
Like any organization, there are often differences of opinion even between members. In the Social Thought Group, Chlouba and Friedman encourage these differences as a way for students to grow as thinkers and members of the larger community. Friedman explained that they’re “just trying to build social capital. That’s the most important thing. That’s what facilitates democracy: people talking together and learning about issues and forming opinions. We go to such a small school and you can really get to know people and learn so much.”
Throughout the years, Conn has had a few conservative groups on campus (along with a couple far-left groups, such as CCLeft and CCDissent), but nothing that seems to have lasted, according to CCDems co-president Matthew Mitchell ’14. However, Mitchell is looking forward to this new club, and “a chance to collaborate for student debates, general discussion events or help with voter registration.” He added that he is excited for an overall working relationship with the club. Friedman seemed a little more hesitant when asked about the possibility of a debate between the two clubs, but their overall goals do seem to mesh. Chlouba said that the long-term goal for the Social Thought Groups is “ensur[ing] that the ongoing debate on campus, not only about political issues, remains diverse and thus enriching to the whole community.”
Friedman was unsure about what form the club would take this semester, but added that his goal isn’t to change the political climate on campus, but to create another outlet for student discussion. Mitchell had similar aspirations for CCDems, saying, “promoting civic involvement on campus and opportunities for open dialogue on issues is also key.”
In the end, Friedman stressed that the most important thing for students to be doing is finding whatever issue they’re passionate about and both talking and learning more about it. As an economics major, the issue that is most important to Friedman is the economy. With a campus community that is continually growing and evolving, everyone will hopefully be able to find a comfortable environment for continued discussion. •
