On Oct. 28, the Illinois State College Democrats and College Republicans had their annual debate Students gathered in the Brown Ballroom of the Bone Student Center to watch three representatives from each party go head-to-head.
Nine questions were asked, the topics ranged from national to local issues. Some of the topics included criminalization of abortion, bans on assault weapons and campus safety.
“I don’t think women should be prosecuted for the crime of abortion. I think criminalization should fall on the responsibility of the doctor. They know better. They know what abortion entails. They understand that life begins at conception, but they perform abortions for profit [and] political gain,” ISU College Republicans member Braiden Gonzalez said.
While Gonzalez strongly expressed his opinion on the topic of abortion, ISU College Democrats representative Delaney Reynolds opposed.
“The College Democrats stands with women and trusts their choices for their own bodies...First, I really want to address the separation between church and state. [The] First Amendment says [that] government should not impose religious beliefs on any individual. Many who oppose abortion do so based on personal or religious views. But our laws must reflect the diverse beliefs of the citizens in the United States,” Reynolds said.
One topic both parties agreed on was student teachers’ wages.
“Absolutely, we should be paying student teachers to ensure that we attract more diverse and more educated student teachers to benefit our future generation,” Reynolds said.
Campus safety was covered, referencing an incident on campus this past August where a hate crime was reported. It was one of several incidents reported at ISU. The representatives were asked how they feel ISU should handle these situations.
“We have to be proactive. We can’t have a hate crime incident occur...I want to stress the importance of ISU administrators being proactive and transparent. We’ve had issues with that in the past,” ISU College Democrats Alex Duffy said.
Duffy also condemned the racism occurring, especially on the social media platform known as Yik Yak, following the recent “pop-up party” shooting.
Both parties stated their desire to encourage students to get out and vote.
“The purpose [of this debate] is to educate people, but I think more so this year is heavily important. We were seeing this almost as a final push to students on campus [to vote]. If you don’t know who you mare voting for, this is a great way to see who and what party you are voting with,” Reynolds said.
