Vote with Vision creates conversation, not debate, around politics on campus

By Maggie Fipps

Today, bringing up the election is an instant conversation killer. Tiring commercials with dramatic music air every break, and it seems every other Facebook post is a new way to superimpose Trump onto a famous figure. It can be fatiguing to begin thinking about what you will write on your ballot in November. 

Vote with Vision, a new initiative on campus, is hoping to start a better conversation around this fall’s election. Josh Chapin, Destiny Gaines, Luke Ring and Rachel White began this project for a communications class, but they said their hope is to pervade a bleak political climate with an optimistic attitude.

“This is a time where most people’s minds are already somewhat thinking about voting, so we can then take advantage of that and be like, ‘Hey, this is the way to think about voting. This is valuable,’” Chapin said. “It’s a good mix of putting out good content and pointing people in the right direction during a time when this is probably the most they’ll think about voting in three years.” 

The team envisions their posts on Instagram and YouTube engaging people in fun content about election season and then slowly turning the conversation to more serious conversations about civic engagement. 

“We’ve just started transitioning from the fun of getting followers into the meat of it,” Ring said. “We’re going to do probably some campus outreach as well: putting up a table and just talking to students, seeing where they are, and making sure that we get information.”

The team agreed that the most prevalent attitude they came across on Cedarville’s campus was apathy, a verbal representation of the shrug emoji. 

“A lot of my friends back home, they were literally just like ‘My parents may force me to vote, but I really couldn’t care less,’” Ring said. “And ‘couldn’t care less’ is the part that concerned me. It’s one thing to totally be ignorant or just like avoiding it, but like verbally telling me ‘I could care less,’ that just shows you how low of a priority it is.”

Chapin said that as Generation Z grew up in the toxic sludge of the 2020s, it may turn some people off from engaging in politics altogether. 

“Especially for the college student, and how the political climate has just been so divisive and so toxic, especially in the past four years after COVID,” Chapin said. “There’s too much pressure and too many hurt feelings.”

The team also wants to bring awareness to the practical aspects of voting, such as receiving an absentee ballot, or how students can register to vote online. 

“It’s partly, ‘I’m at school, it’s harder for me to vote, I have to put in more work, I’m already so busy, I’m not going to do it,’” Chapin said. “So they don’t see the value in it compared to the work that they have to put in for it. Our job is to show them that it matters and why it matters.”

Engaging students in respectful, political conversations could seem like a pipe dream for anyone who watches the news, but Gaines said she desires Cedarville students to hear each other’s perspectives. 

“I would just want people to be able to talk about it more,” Gaines said. “Yes, a lot of people at Cedarville are more conservative, but some people aren’t as conservative as you think. I feel like people are afraid to just have those conversations and talk about where they stand politically. I wish that the conversation was more open and less about: ‘If you’re not a conservative, then you’re not a Christian.’”

If Christians vote with vision, Chapin said that the world will notice. 

“The political climate today is so toxic and so divisive and if anything, Cedarville students should be the ones who model Christlike debate and communication,” Chapin said, “even when there’s this disagreement about what they believe in.”

Maggie Fipps is a senior Journalism student and the Editor in Chief of Cedars. She enjoys playing the piano and thrifting, and you may spot her around campus sporting Packers gear head to toe.