Just 30 days before the election, Dean Ngonidzashe Munemo announced Crossroads: Elections and Practicing the Liberal Arts. This initiative united a wide range of content of cross-discipline programming under the Crossroads label with the intention of providing a space for students to express their thoughts and opinions on the upcoming election. In the aftermath of the election, the Crossroads programming will continue to provide spaces for students to discuss politics and practice the liberal arts.
“The core of it was really around thinking through and working with colleagues across campus on a broad initiative to try and get the campus community to engage with the elections, that wasn’t the kind of traditional, passive, we’re just going to have talks about it,” Dean Munemo told
The Spectator
. He continued, saying the core question behind the initiative is, “how do we take advantage of the liberal arts context to engage with the elections?”
Crossroads programming provided many ways for students to express their ideas leading up to the election. This included tabling on Martin’s Way, various Common Ground events, lectures across a variety of departments, late-night breakfasts at Commons and McEwen and a community mural. Crossroads programming centralized typically separate, but similar, events. Dean Munemo said about this intertwining, “We don’t often see that as a kind of cohesive set.”
Lecture style events were blended with interactive events for student expression. According to Dean Munemo, “A lot of people are going to come and talk at you, so I was mostly focused on the individual engagement with the elections.” Days-Massolo Center Director Koboul Mansour expanded on this point, saying, “You’re somebody who just came out of your hometown or your family, and you’re being shaped and reshaped and formed and reformed by all the experiences that you get exposed to along the way. So how can you do that as students if you do not have the space to express yourself, you know what I mean?”
Of these programs, Dr. Mansour and Dean Munemo found the tabling on Martin’s Way to be the most impactful. Dean Munemo told
The Spectator
, “A common theme [that we found] was that, certainly among students for the most part, they weren’t really talking with each other about the elections.”
In these conversations, Dr. Mansour found that conservative students tended to be worried about expressing their political beliefs. In an interview with
The Spectator
, she said, “When conversations came up about elections, one of the things that happened a few times was … you would see a group of friends walking with each other. … And some students actually walked by us, and then they came back alone, saying that they would love to talk about the elections and, like, how they feel about it and everything. But they didn’t feel comfortable sharing their views because they didn’t want their friends to think less of them.”
However, despite its success in bringing community members together, Crossroads programming was not without setbacks. On Oct. 10, the Crossroads community mural was vandalized by Adyn Brenden ’27, as previously reported by
The Spectator
. This vandalism included several swastikas and a call to violence against Jewish people. After the vandalism was discovered, the canvas was immediately scrubbed and shut down. Brenden, a South Dakota native, is currently suspended from campus and awaiting trial set for this January. Brenden commented on his actions on popular social media network X.
Recounting this experience, Dean Munemo said, “when I heard about the vandalism, my commitment was I need to figure out a way to get back, to not let that incident take away from the engagement that, clearly, members of the community had found inspiration in.” In spite of the vandalism, the mural was brought back after a week and eventually displayed in collaboration with the Wellin.
Crossroads programming will continue on after the election to help students engage with democracy. According to Dean Munemo, topics for the new chapter of Crossroads will answer the question “what can we do that takes advantage of the fact that we are a residential liberal arts college:” engaging in local politics, writing op-eds and contacting members of Congress.
Expanding on what these programs may look like in the future, Dr. Mansour explained, “One of [the projects] is called The Empathy Project. … It’s an interactive theater that actually happens over the course of eight weeks, where you pair students up and you do casting and all. It’s a whole like, you know, theater production situation, but the whole point is to pair two humans together. And then they will have to learn about each other and what they think. And then for the final production, they go on a stage, and they actually present each other’s point of view.”
“The final thing I would somewhat want to add is a deep and sincere thank you to the colleagues who made this possible. I had got kind of this crazy idea, but the idea would have not gotten anywhere without students, faculty, and staff across campus who were willing to indulge my idea. Among those that were incredibly helpful, the events office, Lisa Magnarelli and her team, just the tremendous, tremendous partnership in collaboration with Koboul Mansour, the director of the Days-Massolo Center, whose vision and execution of this was incredible. … So a lot of thank yous to the community and the working group for the engagement,” said Dean Munemo after recounting his experiences with the initiative.
“I think it’s one of the hardest things you could possibly do as a human is to try to engage everyone in a conversation about a very polarizing topic, and this is a very extensive one, for a lot of different reasons,” Dr. Mansour told
The Spectator
. She continued, “I honestly believe that if we just try to save our humanity at the level that we can, that’s going to be a huge win for everyone, and I think this campaign was able to do that, bring a lot of campus community members, regardless if you’re a student, you’re in facilities, you’re whatever, to engage about something that’s very sensitive.”