Central Civics to teach how to have civil political discussion at dinner table
From 10-3 Central Civics and Central votes hosted Fire Up To Vote with walking tacos, games, and information on how to register for the November presidential election at Tuesday, Sept. 17 at Park Library Lawn. (CM Life | Jasmine Brookins)
Dinner Table Politics will take place 6 p.m. on Nov. 25 in the University Center Rotunda. The event is designed to teach students, staff and the community how to have friendly and listening-based conversations about politics.
The event is a mass collaboration between the Volunteer Center, the Office of Institutional Diversity and Central Civics. Central Civics is an organization on campus that works to build nonpartisan political engagement. They've held this event since 2020.
Dinner table politics caters a full meal, and for their fourth year, volunteer staff from the library and counseling center will also be participating.
The library volunteers will teach visitors how to fact-check sources and use their library resources. The counseling center volunteers will focus on self-care advice and how to set healthy boundaries.
Headshot of Symantha Dattilo, interim director of the Mary Ellen Brandell Volunteer Center, 2024. Courtesy of Dattilo.
Symantha Dattilo, who has worked at the volunteer center for six years and has been official staff for two, is helping organize the event.
“Know you don’t have to participate in these conversations,” Dattilo said. “(They will cover) taking care of yourself, even those who have these conversations all the time. We purposefully position it right before Thanksgiving when students are going home."
Dattilo said the event’s chief organizer is Harrison Krafchak, sophomore and student coordinator for Central Civics. Dattilo said the event focuses on healthy discussion methods like focusing on commonality and boundary-setting. They realized students wanted to learn how to have civil conversation as they were coordinating with resident assistants for their Ten Tuesdays series leading up to the election.
“We’ve gotten feedback from students that the conversation piece is where a lot of the anxiety is living,” Dattilo said. “'How do I go home for Thanksgiving and not get in a fight?' This year we’re going to be more direct, given we’re post-election.”
The prior year, "we held a faux-debate centered around something really weird and benign like whether or not we should remove all trees from campus," she said.
The event originally worked with the institution for transformational dialogue. Their focus is to "lean into listening." Dattilo said students should "try to listen more than you talk."
“We’re more polarized than we ever were before, more opposed than ever before,” Dattilo said. “But I really do believe we have more in common than what separates us. … At the end of the day, everyone wants to be safe.”
