Experiential Journalism
A glimpse into perceptions of the Democratic race at the University of Pennsylvania
On the night of the October 15th Democratic debate, fifty University of Pennsylvania students gathered at Du Bois College House for a watch party hosted by the Mighty Psi Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., one of the university’s Black Greek-Letter organizations. According to Montell D. Brown, a former member of the organization and current graduate student at Penn, the watch party was intended as an opportunity to “engage … in the civic process of political engagement.” At the end of an email sent to members of the Du Bois College House, he encouraged students to “come out for food, fellowship, and fun.”
People began seeding in for the watch party early, with some arriving at 7 PM – a full hour before the event – and sitting at the back of the room with their laptops and calculators out. In the area, there was a general buzz as students worked. Some, like sophomore Justin, lamented Penn’s “stupid long” midterm season, saying that they’d been taking tests for over three weeks. Others discussed the 2020 election around taking notes, including two communications majors who slogged through dense text as they spoke. Both said that they knew the event would be a waste of time, but they might as well know what was happening.
At 8 PM, the chatter faded, but the steady click of laptop keys continued as students lifted their heads just enough to see the television over their work. Some momentarily brushed their devices out of the way, but few turned them off or shut the lids entirely. “Yeah, I’m still studying,” senior Ronaldo said. “I got sh*t to do.”
As the debate went on, students continued watching in a similar fashion, side-eyeing the television (sometimes literally and sometimes judgmentally) as they proofread essays, reviewed formula sheets, and completed homework assignments. There were few times when they broke from that pattern, but when they did, it was nearly collective. Democractic candidate Tom Steyer’s eager introduction, for example, elicited amusement from the crowd. “This is my first time here,” he said with childish glee, and several people chuckled.
At Joe Biden’s snide claim that he would “beat [Trump] like a drum,” most of the students in the room looked up from their work, laughing as they did. A boy who sat at the front of the room parotted the comment, saying, “he held that face, and he said beat. him. like. a. drum,” as the people around him “oo”ed in the same way that children do when they’re watching a schoolyard fight develop. When the moment passed, they went back to their school work.
The way that the students behaved during the watch party is likely a reflection of Penn’s culture, which Wharton Professor Adam Grant calls “hypercompetitive” and “pre-professional.” When asked, students chose to continue working because they had such high work loads that they didn’t have time to slow down for anything.
The second most common response to the unofficial survey was that students didn’t see the point in just watching. Regardless of what happened in the debate, the general consensus was that they still had other responsibilities. The constant presence of laptops, calculators, and phones made that clear – by keeping them out, the students seemed to be suggesting that their lives couldn’t stop for politics. Similarly, the infrequent moments in the debate that made most, if not all, of the room react suggested that despite the fact that “life goes on,” it doesn’t do so without being interrupted or influenced by politics.
At the end of the debate, students muttered under their breaths about the final question, which intended to address the perceived benefits of bipartisanship friendships. “Bullsh*t,” one student murmured to a friend as he started to pack his belongings up. Slightly louder, he said, “hey, I’m going to [the Graduate Student Education building]. You coming?”
“You’re still studying?” his friend replied.
“For a bit.”
For him (and for many other students in the room), there was no time to formally sit down and digest the results of the debate because he still had work to do. Politics mattered enough for him to watch the debate in the first place, but his immediate life was his primary concern.