Since President Donald Trump’s second inauguration on January 20th, a number of his executive orders have caused great concern in the academic and scientific communities; nine days after Trump came into office, the College sent out an email regarding the then-active federal funding freeze and the changes to ICE policy and diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. As an email that came out one day later put it, many students are finding “the uncertainty of these orders [to be] frustrating and confusing.” In response, Ursinus’ Diversity, Action, and Resource Team, better known as DART, organized a lunch and conversation on February 21st, in order to give the Ursinus community the opportunity to come together and process recent events in a safe, accepting environment.
The conversation opened with a reiteration of Ursinus’ core values, centering around excellence, free inquiry, ethics, and inclusion, then the floor opened to the 30+ attendees, including 15+ administrators and faculty; these core values remained central to the conversation.
The opening remarks, as could be expected, were largely somber; students, faculty, and administrators alike came together and shared their fear, anxiety, and confusion, offering up condolences and affirmations of care in response to each other’s vulnerability. Some described themselves as in an “abyss,” or afraid of the complacency they witnessed around them. As each who chose to shared, a narrative formed: many students are struggling with focusing on schoolwork and with seeing references to extremism regularly on campus. Some faculty and staff have noticed, too, the rise in hatred; a point that came up recurrently is how difficult it is to see and hear about instances of bigotry, often directly contradicting the friendly, open students they see in their classrooms and interactions on-campus. However, before long, a second pattern emerged: for every trying moment or concern shared, a speaker — or whoever came after them, offering elaboration, affirmation, or comfort — would follow up with a message of bright hope. Yes, it’s painful to witness a reference to Nazism, but much of the student body is in solidarity against it. Absolutely, one may be scared of the normalization of bigotry, but many are speaking up who were silent before. According to Josh Coster ‘25, one student who attended the conversation, the meeting itself offered reassurance: “It was great to see staff and students participate in the discussion. Since the election, I have been looking for people to converse with about politics, but I have always felt that the Ursinus campus community was largely apolitical.”
Coster himself shared thoughts on the circumstances leading up to the conversation. He volunteers that he added on to another attendee’s fears about political inaction among young people. “For one,” he shared, “I believe that young people are conditioned to stay away from political discussion… The other reason is that many people in the same school of thought as myself are unwilling to ‘reach across the aisle’ and discuss things we know to be objectively true and faithful to our country’s stated values.” This topic remained integral to the conversation; beyond the element of understanding and empathy, several attendees championed the importance of reaching out and taking action. A handful of those present expressed how reassuring it was to see those close to them “wake up” to politics and become more active political agents as a result of new conversations surrounding the election.
In the end, the conversation closed on a higher note: the importance of love and unity. We are stronger together than we are apart, so said those present. We need only embrace each other.