On Thursday, Sept. 5 at 5:30 p.m., 210 students gathered on Brookings Quad, ready to enjoy thought-provoking conversation with those around them and delicious food from The Vine Mediterranean Café at Washington University’s second annual Longest Table.
“Dialogue events like this one feel particularly important during an election year, because of how it serves as a reminder of the deeply personal and local effects that political action has,” said Lawrence Hapeman ‘25.
The Longest Table is a civic dialogue event featuring a long table—in this case, two rows of 19 tables each—and guided discussion. This year, it was guided by the theme, “Finding Connection Through Divided Times.”
After grabbing their food, attendees were encouraged to find a place to sit next to someone they didn’t know. At their tables, they were welcomed by friendly faces and placemats with the theme emblazoned across the top.
Today, we’re not trying to get into who you’re going to vote for or why. Instead, we encourage you to focus on your personal perspectives and experiences that are shaping how you’re experiencing this time, and how you plan to engage in this election season.”
Alannah Glickman, Associate Director for Civic Engagement
The event kicked off with opening remarks from Alannah Glickman, Associate Director for Civic Engagement at the Gephardt Institute, and Dewitt Campbell, Manager of Civic Learning Initiatives.
“The results of the elections have major implications for the country and the world, and it’s been a contentious and unusual election season so far,” said Glickman.
“Today, we’re not trying to get into who you’re going to vote for or why. Instead, we encourage you to focus on your personal perspectives and experiences that are shaping how you’re experiencing this time, and how you plan to engage in this election season.”
The duo went established community norms for the conversation: Participants were asked to listen to understand, to speak to their own experience, to be curious when confronted with ideas or experiences different from their own, and to be conscientious about taking and making space.
“We’re inviting you to work the muscle of listening, connecting, and even disagreeing,” continued Campbell, “These are important skills for a functioning democracy.”
“I have a really strong belief that it’s important for us to talk about our differences, even if it’s difficult to do that.”
Lastly, students were asked to honor the vast diversity of thought, experience, and identity that everyone was bringing to the event.
“Our understanding and our decisions are stronger when we have the opportunity to consider perspectives other than our own,” said Glickman.
There were three rounds of conversation. The first focused on establishing connections and sharing perspectives, asking people to consider how they feel about the U.S. election season, and inviting them discuss what federal politics mean to them.
The second round—entitled “getting into the issues”—called attendees to answer the question, “What is a political issue connected with this election that you care about and why?” The next question encouraged them to consider how other people’s concerns differed from or aligned with their own.
“This event was a great way to gain perspectives from people from all over,” said Evangeline Joyce ‘26. “I have a very Midwest perspective, and being at a university during the election allows you to see people from all walks of life. You get to know some new people, and learn how they think of things.”
The final round commenced by asking attendees to contemplate how the election season has affected their relationships with others, and how they think politics should affect relationships. With the goal of fostering a healthy and inclusive culture, attendees were then asked to share their hopes and fears around campus climate and culture during election season with those around them.
Finally, attendees were urged to consider, “How do you want to relate to others who agree and others who you disagree with? What are some things you can do to show up and connect in that way?”
“I definitely enjoyed my table’s dialogue, but it also reinforced to me the fact that having this type of discussion can be utterly exhausting,” said Hapeman. “It takes a lot of mental and social energy to hear about someone else’s experience without immediately absorbing it into the context you already have in your head.
“I hope that our shared struggle to understand each other can be a basis for solidarity between people in general, but I realize that outside of a somewhat-curated environment like this event it can be much more difficult to give other people grace.”
Campbell said that it’s time to talk across differences and to find solutions together, as a community.
“The Longest Table is one of those opportunities to do so,” he said. “There are lots of other opportunities on campus to do that as well, and so I encourage all of us to be working on building the muscle of having the difficult conversations, working through our discomfort, and building community together, not just based upon the things that we have in common, but also the things that we have that are different.”
The Longest Table is part of the Gephardt Institute’s Engage Democracy Initiative. If you would like to make a gift to support Engage Democracy, please click here or contact Alex Jackson at jalex@wustl.edu.