In a polarized and disengaged nation, it’s hard for students to understand how civic life used to function. Organizers of Aggie Lyceum, part of a university-led citizenship initiative, are working to bring that civic life back, one conversation at a time.
The Aggie Lyceum hosts Civic Conversations every Monday at the Memorial Student Center in Room 2404 from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. Each week, a different topic is selected to better help students navigate discussing difficult topics in a respectful and engaging manner, according to The College of Arts and Sciences. On Oct. 2, “Immigration in America: How do we fix a system in crisis?” was presented as the topic of the week.
Aggie Lyceum Director and professor in the Department of Communication and Journalism Jennifer Mercieca helped lead the discussion. Mercieca explained how the nation is polarized and disengaged, taking away how civic life used to function.
“All of the incentives in our public sphere are about being uncivil and not having a conversation,” Mercieca said. “The more we can bring people together to have conversations that are about political issues but in a non-polarizing way, the more we can all learn that’s possible.”
Accounting junior Kolby Erwin attended Civic Conversations as a facilitator. Erwin guided a small group of Aggie Lyceum attendees, assisted in keeping the conversation focused and prevented it from devolving into anything off topic.
“As a facilitator, I dislike the idea of the challenge of just talking to people who felt really strongly about an issue and trying to help people see other points of view is something I’m passionate about,” Erwin said.
Texas A&M had more than 6,000 international students enrolled in the fall of 2024, according to the Texas Tribune. Erwin explained the importance of empathy in relation to immigration policy, as it directly affects A&M students.
“It certainly humanizes it when you understand that there are people that you see every day that are affected by this; it makes it a lot harder to take a pragmatic position,” Erwin said. “This is somebody that if they were forced to leave, it would take a lot of brightness and color of what makes America what it is.”
Erwin said that rather than trying to win a conversation, people should attempt to understand one another.
“If people chose to treat people with kindness and earnestly attempt to understand them, it would eliminate many of the issues we have with big political issues like this,” Erwin said.
According to the Texas Tribune, 252 international students and one professor at Texas universities have had their legal status changed as of April 16. The prevalence of student visas being revoked is what caused Biology freshman Emmanuel Enriquez to act based on emotion in the discussion group, he said.
“As a whole, the immigration policy doesn’t just affect Aggies,” Enriquez said. “If this separation ever happened to me, to not have the reassurance of ever seeing each other again, it would dig deep.”
Enriquez explained how what he learned at Civic Conversations should be applied to everyday conversations.
“The topic of keeping civility regardless of how controversial a topic may be or who’s involved is really important,” Enriquez said. “We’re all human, we all came here to discuss a problem, and we should take that to other points in our lives, not just in a controlled environment.”
