The election watch party at SE Campus brought TCC students together to engage with politics, regardless of differing personal beliefs.
Incoming SE student Tatiana Humphries sat at a table of people with different views from her own and had a discussion to challenge each other’s beliefs.
“When you have people sitting together that have different politics and you can actually have a conversation with [them], it can change your perspective,” Humphries said.
The watch party was a collaboration between the SE Phi Theta Kappa chapter and the SE civic engagement club to encourage civic involvement among TCC students. The event featured food, board games and prizes to occupy attendees watching news coverage of the election in the SE01 Ballroom.
President of the SE Campus PTK chapter Marissa Sanchez said the watch party helped create camaraderie among the community, especially in a divisive political climate.
“We’re trying to make this very fun event … just to bring together people who may try to separate themselves, especially during these hectic times,” she said. “[We want to] remind them that we are one country. We are collectively American.”
Jarrait Humphries, vice president of service and fellowship of SE’s PTK chapter, said the event was a way for people to start conversations and inform themselves.
“It opens the door to actually be able to talk about politics,” he said. “A lot of people feel closed off … and I think this provides a good outlet where people feel like they can ask questions and try to figure out what’s going on.”
On the walls of the room were papers where students can write their thoughts on questions like “Voting is important because …”
Some answers written were “it allows for my voice to be heard,” “to keep politicians in check” and “it is in the Constitution and allows the United States to unite as one.”
TCC graduate Tam Ho now goes to University of Texas at Arlington but came back to her home campus to support PTK. Ho, a former PTK member, could not vote this year because although she had passed the citizenship exam, she had not taken the oath ceremony yet.
Ho said voting could affect politics at a local and national level.
“I used to think that one vote didn’t matter, but my professors and everybody said that [was] actually not true,” she said.
SE student Adekunle Adio said this election will be a crossroads for the nation, which seems to be split in two.
“We really need to … go back to one nation united together,” he said. “I think this election will show the division. And afterwards, it brings healing, which might bring unity.”
