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Notre Dame isn’t speaking — at least, not to each other.
Notre Dame is its own democracy. We have a governance structure in the administration, a media at work reporting stories and a public that is divided on issues. While no one outside of the board of trustees elected Rev. Robert to consider “What do we owe each other?” for the Notre Dame Forum this year. The Notre Dame Forum was established at the beginning of Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C.’s tenure in 2005, intending to “invite campus- wide dialogue each year about an issue of importance to the University, the nation, and the wider world.” Campus is talking, but not to each other.
An Absence of Debate
This election season has been a divisive one at Notre Dame. There has been discourse all across campus, but outside of some of the more traditional means. While Notre Dame College Republicans (NDCR) wanted to do a debate — as was done in 2020 and 2022 — Notre Dame College Democrats (NDCD) said no. According to Co-President Olivia Sanders, the 2022 debate “proved to be unproductive at best and harmful to our members at worst.” An exchange in 2022 on abortion was the main cause of the contention that remains two years later. (I will note that I was the co-moderator of that debate.) While abortion was one of the most heated moments in the debate, it resulted in no disciplinary action for either of the candidates.
This drive by the NDCD to not participate in a debate this year was met by Notre Dame Television (NDTV), who previously hosted debates in their studio between NDCR and NDCD in 2020 and 2022, but chose not to this year. Jake Irons, Station Manager for NDTV, said, a short broadcast the morning of Election Day, recapping how politics impacted campus this fall.
Instead of a live debate, Republicans and Democrats decided to write a bi-weekly column in the Viewpoint section of The Observer. Each Friday, the clubs wrote an editorial tackling an issue or stance. By the time of this article’s publication, College Democrats used their 10 debate, implore Christians to vote against Donald Trump and defend protections for immigrants. NDCR used their editorials to endorse Donald Trump, implore Catholics to vote for pro-life candidates and defend Trump’s views on immigration. While these editorials are said to be a “debate column,” they do not directly respond to each other.
This form of discourse is a departure from the national change in the presidential campaigns as well. Both presidential candidates have embraced a hybrid approach between legacy media, the traditional outlets of print newspapers and broadcast television and new media, internet-based platforms like podcasts and social media sites. Vice President Kamala Harris has granted some legacy media interviews on MSNBC and CNN, but she’s also gone onto the “Call Her Daddy” Podcast with Alex Cooper and “The Breakfast Club” with Charlamagne tha God. Former President Donald Trump has preferred new media over legacy, but he’s granted interviews to Fox News and held a press conference in August at his Mar-a-Lago estate. For new media, he’s appeared on “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast and an X Space interview with Elon Musk. Both candidates participated in a Sept. 10 debate on CBS. Harris sat for the CBS “60 Minutes” interview, a decades- long tradition for presidential candidates, but Trump would not participate. He also chose not to do a second debate with Harris, which was scheduled in October and hosted by CNN.
The way the country and our campus are discussing politics is changing this election. election has made on the country, especially with how divided the polls indicate this election is.
The Problem of Polling
Recent polls on student opinion at Notre Dame show a shift since 2020. Four years ago, in a mock election conducted by ND Student Government and ND Votes, only 29% of students were expecting to vote for Trump. This year, polls from the Irish Rover and Scholastic Irish Rover, a Catholic conservative-leaning student paper on campus, found that 48% of students are planning to vote for Trump and 46% are planning to vote for Harris. Scholastic’s poll, which was conducted via an online form from the Duncan Student Center, found that 57% of students were voting for Harris and 43% were voting for Trump. At the time of writing, The Observer was actively holding a mock election with similar methodology to Scholastic’s.
Prior to conducting polling, Scholastic had to seek approval for the polling methodology and questions from Maureen Doyle, Director of Student Centers, Activities, and Events for the Student Activities Office. SAO, under the Division of Student affairs, allowed Scholastic to conduct polling exclusively through tabling in the Duncan Student Center over the course of two days. Students passing by were invited to scan a QR code linking to an anonymous Google Form. In the end, the results showed a female skew and a limited sample size.
This process was reflective of the policy toward questionnaires and surveys outlined in the student handbook, which requires individual students and organizations to submit the questionnaire or survey along with a written statement for approval by the associate vice president for student development. The scope of any non-class related student survey, then, is subject to the administration’s judgment and approval. Surveys sent by email are subject to further scrutiny and require more time. While three groups on campus conducted polling, none were willing to go through the process for campus wide polling by email.
In previous years, student groups completed widespread polling on the political opinions of the student body. For example, the mock election conducted by Student Government in 2020 amassed 3,499 respondents, and the poll was distributed to the student body in an accessible electronic form. A survey of that scale just did not happen this year. The Irish Rover’s poll, which was distributed to “dorm groups, classes and nonpartisan student organizations,” had 705 respondents while Scholastic’s had only 237 respondents.
Even with the struggles of the polling of student opinion in favor of Trump for this election shows an increase in support for the former president. Nationally, polling from NBC and Harvard University found that Gen Z-aged likely voters were more than 60% in favor of voting for Harris. And this trend in both NBC and Harvard polling was the same from 2020. But that is not that case at Notre Dame.
As a Catholic university, the polling shift in favor of Trump this election shows how across the country. If this polling is to be believed, our students are more conservative than many others at top universities. But the extent to which we can know students’ liberal or conservative political leanings is somewhat limited.
The New Democracy Initiative
Notre Dame announced the founding of the Democracy Initiative in April 2024. The the initiative is to “establish Notre Dame as a leader in the study of democracy both in the U.S. and worldwide.” The initiative, led by managing director Joel Day, is housed in the Rooney Center for American Democracy. In Notre Dame Magazine, Day wrote that “the investment we [the university] make in years of public policy.” While not disclosing the amount Notre Dame is investing, Day asserted in an interview with Scholastic that this investment is directly steered around research and conveings. The financial aspect comes into play with hiring top faculty that are studying democracy across the globe.
The initiative sends out a monthly email to update progress on the initiative so far. The Dame professors being featured in media outlets on issues of democracy. The second, sent on Sept. 3, highlighted the work of faculty on campus and in media outlets, and introduced the Democracy Catalyst Fund opportunity.
The Democracy Catalyst Fund departments or recognized student groups on projects that closely align with the mission of the University of Notre Dame’s Democracy Initiative.” Day says the initiative will award
Shri Thakur, political director for NDCR, says the club believes that the Democracy Initiative is “a vacuous exercise by liberal elites to paint any challenges to their governing philosophy as a ‘threat to democracy.’” They see a bias in the topics of events and conversations the Democracy Initiative has covered. The initiative has highlighted events such as a talk with Ross Douthat, a conservative New York Times columnist and the Keeping the Republic Conference in early May that “creates an interdisciplinary community of scholars devoted to studying and advancing the democratization of American culture and institutions.” Thakur asserts that threats to democracy are simply talking points for the university and are biased against conservatives and Republicans. “Put simply, none of this is about preserving democracy — it’s about preserving liberalism.”
NDCD is more supportive of the Democracy Initiative. “We eagerly anticipate the Democracy Initiative’s new work and will promote it to our members at every chance we get.” Sanders says that NDCD wants to do their part in getting out the vote and increase trust in the democratic process. The club believes that Notre Dame should be a leader in studying democracy around the globe. While not completely intertwined with the Democracy Initiative, NDCD supports the messaging.
Domer Discourse
Both NDCD and NDCR have been holding events to mobilize voters on campus this year. They both also claim that the momentum on campus is on their side. Thakur cited the movement towards Trump in the Scholastic and Rover polls as signs that the message of NDCR is having greater impact. However, NDCD say that their “discourse has been productive” for Democratic messaging and support for Vice President Harris. They’ve held tabling events and debate watches with students on campus.
Both clubs will be holding election night parties as they watch the results from across America.
NDCR are optimistic about the discourse on campus. “We believe that campus is moving in the right direction,” Thakur says. “Notre Dame students reject Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ record of open borders, anti- White racism, support for abortion until birth and disastrous economic policies. They’re ready to put Trump back in the White House.”
NDCD claim the same. “Within College Democrats circles and those adjacent to us, the discourse has been productive. Through tabling and other public events, we’ve worked to encourage more healthy discourse with as many students as possible,” Sanders says. “However, College Democrats rejects the general anti-immigrant sentiment that seems to pervade the discourse in NDCR articles. It’s harmful to our diverse campus community and the melting pot that is the American people.”
the student clubs, in accordance with du Lac rules, students in both parties canvassed in Michigan before the election. Michigan, a and blue for Joe Biden in 2020. Its swing state status held in 2024, as Harris and Trump continue to poll within a percentage point of each other. Students spent Saturday knocking on doors to support their preferred candidate.
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Notre Dame isn’t talking.
It’s an institution that’s wildly important to national politics, outside of the Ivy Leagues. At the Oct. 12 Stanford game alone, Supreme Court Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE), former senator and ambassador to the Holy See, Joe Donnelly, and congressmen Brendan Boyle (D-PA) and Pat Fallon (R-TX) were on campus. Seven U.S. presidents have given the on campus. Six alumni currently serve in Congress.
Washington shows its face in South Bend more than some might expect, and Notre to advance the interests of the university in our nation’s capital. Our university pushes for bipartisanship, dialogue and communication.
Dowd asked “What do we owe each other?” In an Aug. 27 letter to the Notre Dame community, he wrote, “we have the opportunity at Notre Dame to be a model of vigorous but respectful dialogue for a society greatly in need. Let us rise to meet this challenge throughout this academic year and into the future.” He added to those comments in a letter addressed to the campus community concerning the election on Oct. 29. “Let us also resolve as a Notre Dame community not to contribute to the divisiveness we see too often in our nation as we approach this election.” Dowd wrote. “As a Catholic university dedicated to reasoned dialogue and service to justice, let us inform ourselves about the issues, listen to one another and express our points of view, and treat each other with respect even when we disagree.”
Perhaps Notre Dame’s Democracy Initiative will create an environment in four years where students will talk to the other side instead of just about the other side. Fall Break may have impeded much of the conversation, but both NDCD and NDCR preferred written, emailed statements. Or perhaps this is just how our generation does politics. We will pursue conversations in “new media” and not debate. The “old days” might be gone. Reviewing this election season here at Notre Dame shows us that there hasn’t been the dialogue that Fr. Dowd has called for — there hasn’t even been seasoned debate among students.
For an institution that markets itself as intimately connected to our democracy, how long can we divorce ourselves from debate?