Mosaic to host political debate featuring six student panelists

The Mosaic student newspaper will host a political debate featuring six student panelists from different academic disciplines at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 11 in the DiStefano Lecture Hall.

In lieu of discussing presidential candidates and their agendas, the debate will focus on issues prominent in the media, and how they do or don’t relate to the five critical concerns of Mercy: Earth, immigration, nonviolence, racism and women.

The debate’s panel format is designed to get students thinking about the issues that are most important to them without the interfering bipartisan bias of the major political parties, and to demonstrate how the media can serve as a viable source of information for voters.

The panel will include Patricia Socarras ’17, Matthew Mascari ’17, Caitlin Downing ’17, Christopher Chavarria ’19, Julia Morisi ’17 and Ryan Ciocco ’18.

“As Salve Regina encourages students to vote in the upcoming election through motivations such as broadcasting presidential debates and promoting the hashtag #salvevotes, it is equally important that we students educate ourselves on the main concerns in the election,” Morisi said. “The critical concerns of mercy address these issues and offer an intellectual and merciful platform to explore current and challenging questions, as well as the tools to debate and discuss them.”

The debate will be moderated by Mosaic co-editors-in-chief Lily Margaret Jones ’17 and Marrissa Ballard ’17.

“I think the debate is a great chance for the Salve community to think about the critical concerns of mercy as they prepare to cast their ballot,” Ballard said. “Many people on campus are voting for the first time in this pivotal election, and we hope that the discussion will encourage them to think about what issues are most important to them.”