In a political environment where partisan politics can lock up a nation, Ball State’s College Republicans and University Democrats have worked together to get their fellow students to vote.
The semesterlong effort will continue today when the groups, along with the Student Government Association, sponsor a shuttle service to bring students to polling stations.
“It really shows how much we want the students to vote, and it shows how important it is for the student body to be able to vote,” said Erica Walsh, University Democrats communications director. “It’s really nice that both organizations can come together, work toward a common goal and achieve that goal.”
With the redistricting of the state in 2011, students have to vote farther from campus this year, Walsh said.
By starting at the university level with bipartisanship, the effort increases the students’ future abilities to work with the opposite party, said Joseph Losco, political science department chairman.
“In order to get anything done [in a two-party system],” Losco said, “you need people to reach across the aisle and find solutions that both sides can live with.”
Kelsea Neal, College Republicans public relations chair, also emphasized the idea.
“Bipartisanship allows for compromise, which is good so you’re not swinging back between two radical positions,” she said.
Working together so far this semester, the groups’ voices have been made louder and bigger by combining efforts such as registering students to vote for the elections, Neal said.
Early in October, the two groups came together to hold the debate for the 6th congressional district on campus.
“I’ve always thought bipartisanship is very important and working with people from other opinions, so it’s more of a broad basis,” Walsh said. “I think people in both organizations know each other better now.”
Reaching across the aisle has been a learning experience for both sides, an important skill for those interested in going into politics in life. This has been the first time for some to work with the opposite party, learning patience and compromise along the way.
“[The] university is especially important as a forum for ideas, and we need a great degree of tolerance and acceptance in order to exchange ideas in a peaceful and productive way,” he said. “Bipartisanship is the spirit of that kind of acceptance, which comes closer to a kind of university ideal.”
Organizing the two groups has been a learning experience for both sides.
“We learned how to organize with people we’re not usually working with,” Walsh said. “They have their executive board, we have ours, so we are very comfortable working with ourselves but to work with another team, it kind of immerses us into a different type of situation.”
Although bipartisanship is generally seen as a positive, there can be drawbacks to the concept.
“Sometimes, you get policies that are watered down,” Losco said. “Sometimes, it might be better to have a policy that runs closer to one party’s original position than another, maybe it’s more efficient or effective. Bipartisanship forces you sometimes to water down some of that policy and make it a little less sufficient.”
Neal said there have not been drawbacks for the groups working together this year. Joining together has given the organizations more momentum as a whole.
“It’s about compromise and learning how to do that is so important,” she said. “Those are things that our senators and congressmen know and some of them need to learn it a little bit better. So I think the earlier you start, the better it is.”
