Kavanaugh/Ford -- A Student Perspective
By: Rachael Kuper '20
Earlier this month, national headlines covered Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation with added vigor. The renewed excitement is mainly due to Dr. Christine Blasely Ford’s testimony at the Senate Judiciary Hearing on September 27th, alleging that Kavanaugh assaulted her as a teen.
Is this a hot topic at SSU? Are students and staff following the story? Are they overwhelmingly in support Kavanaugh? Ford? Or somewhere in the middle? I tried to find out.
I began my search by approaching fellow students and staff waiting for class to start and asking if they’d be willing to participate in a short survey for this article. The survey consisted of two questions. One: Did you watch the hearing, not watch, or somewhere in the middle (i.e., watched segments, read coverage, saw the SNL skit)? Question number two: Do you lean towards supporting Kavanaugh or Ford?. All answers were recorded as anonymous tallies.
Most people landed in the middle on both questions. For the first question (on watching the hearing) there was more variety, approximately equal numbers surveyed/watched the hearing as answered “in the middle.” Slightly more responded they didn’t watch, as some of the hearings were held during class time. For the second question (on whom they support), some stated strong support for Ford and slightly more were on the fence. No one openly stated support for Kavanaugh.
The results were hardly a conclusive survey of the entire campus, in particular compared to an online survey (as some participants suggested). However, asking in person allowed for nuance and gave me a greater impression of participants’ interest in the topic.
While conducting my survey, I noticed key general trends: overwhelming people did not want to comment further on the subject, a few overtly refused to participate (whether due to being uninformed on the issue or uncomfortable with the topic of what the qualifications for a Supreme Court Justice are, was unclear), and some questioned if they “should say” their opinion. Almost universally people expressed discomfort on the topic, verbally and nonverbally. In an upper level writing class, with input of the instructor, we opened up the discussion further but quickly had to end early because of such discomfort.
Overall, it seems that students and staff at SSU aren’t particularly interested in speaking about the dramatic events leading up to and following the Senate Hearing. Is this indication of general disinterest in politics on campus? Are people uncomfortable with discussing sexual assault claims in particular? Time will tell.