On Apr. 3rd, students and faculty alike gathered in the auditorium of the Taylor Science Center to witness a simulated debate featuring the Government 112W: Comparative Politics class taught by Sharon Rivera. This event has been held in alternating years since the class was first offered.
This year’s debate was the culmination of a semester long project in which the students participated in a mock election campaign for the fictional country dubbed West Europa. This fictional country parallels other European countries and is part of the European Union, of which withdrawal from was a contested point during the debate.
The students were asked by Rivera to devise campaign strategies, produce original campaign ads, and write party platforms.
The campaign consisted of six parties. The National Unity Party led by James Ball ’21, with Jason Healy ’22 as the party secretary, Brian Komen ’21 and James Cho ’22 as the press secretaries, and Mian Osumi ’21 as the policy expert.
Morgan Perry ’21 led the Unbowed Democratic Socialists, made up of Chris Coulouvatos ’21 as the party secretary, Nancy Loh ’22 and Nicholas Conzelman ’20 as the press secretaries, and Benn Otten ’22 as the policy expert.
Sam Gause ’21 led the Centrist Party with John Burt ’22 as the party secretary, Mia Schiel ’22 and Kristen Bitsberger ’22 as the press secretaries, and Mike Spicer ’21 and Bobby Grygiel ’22 as the policy experts.
Peri Kessler ’22 led the New Democratic Party, with Alex Kurtz ’21 as the party secretary, Spencer Royal ’22 and Rex Xu ’22 as the press secretaries, and Laura Rodriguez ’20 as the policy expert.
The Aurinthian Liberation Party, led by Matt Knowlton ’21, had Quinn Voboril ’22 as the party secretary, Peter Smith ’20 and Sam Foley ’21 as the press secretaries, and Claire O’Brien ’21 as the policy expert.
Joshua Doh ’22 led the National People’s Party, with Adele Hinkle ’22 as the party secretary, Emma Liles ’22 and Jacob Hane ’22 as the press secretaries, and Eamon Gibbons ’21 and Nicholas May ’22 as the policy experts. Students created unique platforms and logos for their parties.
The debate night consisted of one-minute campaign videos from each party followed by one-minute opening statements from each leader, an interactive Q&A, and one-minute closing remarks. The Q&A session began with scripted questions on foreign policy, immigration, and economic policies given by Professor Rivera. For this portion, the parties had one minute to respond to a question chosen from a list that was given to each group prior to the debate night. Next, there was a period in which each candidate asked another party a question; the other party then had 90 seconds to respond. Finally, there was an open question period from the audience.
Some topics discussed included Brexit, environmental policies, policy funding issues, severance packages, and assimilation of migrants into West Europa.
After the debate concluded, a panel of judges deliberated to choose the winning group. The criteria for judging was based on which group had the best argument and responses to questions, whether or not the judge agreed with the policies themselves. The panel of judges was made up of College President David Wippman, Professor of Women and Gender Studies Margaret Gentry, Assistant Professor of Government Alesia T. Chan, Kaygon Finaki ’19, and Hannah Young ’20. Additionally, the audience was asked to mark their own choice on a ballot.
After a brief discussion, the judges decided that the National People’s Party was the winner, noting their eloquent responses to questions and a well-crafted platform. The audience’s choice was the Aurenthian Liberation Party.
Ultimately, students reported that they enjoyed the experience and believed it added value to understanding of political campaigns, and would recommend the continuing with the simulation in future years.
