When Fairfield students can take time out of their busy schedule to sit down and watch or read the news, they hear many different perspectives about the election, but only from news commentators or journalists.
In a series of forums and discussions that were held last week concerning Super Tuesday, the University’s own faculty and staff spoke about the involvement of faith and female political pundits in the presidential election before the Super Tuesday results were revealed.
Renee White, professor of sociology and anthropology and co-director of the black studies program, who was asked to speak at last Tuesday’s Women’s Forum, said she acknowledges the need for the discussion of issues at this crucial time in the election process.
“At this time, there are so many perspectives on the election concerning all different disciplines: faith, religion and politics. It’s just the right time to talk about them,” she said.
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Paul Lakeland, professor of religious studies and chair of the Center for Catholic Studies, planned Monday’s discussion to make the community aware of the Church’s continued involvement in politics. Lakeland explained that the Center for Catholic Studies program periodically likes to hold discussions to show involvement with other academic areas of interest; in this case, the election.
Monday’s lecture on religious issues and the election featured panelists Fr. Richard Ryscavage, S.J., director of the Center for Faith and Public Life; Donald Greenberg, professor of politics; and Jocelyn Boryczka, assistant professor of politics and director of the peace and justice studies program.
Ryscavage, who is currently writing a book about religion in politics, discussed the Church’s position through the election process.
“The Church does not support any particular political party,” he said. “You can be a Catholic Republican. You can be a Catholic Democrat. And there is a sort of sense in the Church that tries to prevent too much confusion [with] politics and religion.”
Speaking of the involvement of the Pope and other clergy members in the election, Ryscavage said that, because of the many moral issues that enter the political sphere, the Church ultimately gets involved one way or another.
“The Church not only has the right, but the responsibility and competence to jump into the political arena,” he said.
Gale Bellas, professor of English, asked her class to attend the lecture for her U.S. diversity in literature class.
“Aside from talking about different cultural groups in our class, we also focus on different religious beliefs and how they coexist in a multi-cultural society,” she said. “Since this is such a religiously charged election, with the candidates’ religions coming to the forefront, I wanted to share that with the class.”
Similarly, at the women’s forum held on Tuesday, five female Fairfield professors discussed Super Tuesday, the remaining candidates, and their expectations and hopes for the presidential election.
The event was primarily organized by Susan Birge, director and assistant vice president of student resources, who invited all members of the community to attend.
Panelists included Boryczka; Nancy Dallavalle, associate professor of religious studies; Jane Leathermen, professor of politics; Sharlene McEvoy, professor of business law; and White.
Opening the discussion was Dallavalle, who said she is happy with the diverse group of candidates running for the presidency.
“Not only do we have a woman running for president, we have an African-American running for president. There’s a way in which we immediately talk about ourselves as being deeply diverse and having many different things that we’ve accomplished,” she said.
“I’m glad we don’t just have an African-American, a minority, or just have a woman running against a slate of all white men; I think that really helps,” she added.
During the discussion, White posed the question for the 100-person group of mostly women in the audience: “Will we vote by our hearts, our minds or simply strategically?”
White said that she and the other panelists were asked to speak because of their different approaches to the candidates and their campaigns, and this shows women’s important roles in voting for candidates.
“This is an opportunity for the women’s forum to highlight the perspectives of women faculty on campus. The goal is to get representation from different disciplines and hopefully to get different points of view on the questions that are all over this election because the election is so historically significant in terms of race and gender,” White said.
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