This week’s Rose Cafe with Professor Peter Enns was spent discussion Trump’s first weeks in office, and was supposed to be an open discussion to voice our opinions regarding everyone’s favorite president. This “open discussion” became a safe space for liberal students to voice their opinions. On the other hand, and while I’m no fan of the guy by any means, I can’t imagine anyone in that room being a fan of President Trump and feeling free to speak up. If I were a Trump supporter, I would fear being ridiculed by the rest of the students.

Aside from the clear bias in the room, the other reason I believe it was only two or three students speaking up (in a room of roughly 20) is that the rest of the students may not have felt comfortable enough with their political knowledge to comment on recent presidential actions. I know for a fact that I have not kept up to date with current events revolving our government, and while that is my own shortcoming, I do believe I am not alone. It is not right, and we should know what is happening in our country and keep updated on how it is being run, but people don’t always have time to follow political news. I think in the future if a similar event is to be run, it may be more beneficial to break into smaller groups to discuss. In this setting, I personally would have been more comfortable with sharing my limited understanding, and it would not have been as much of a listening session and more of an actual discussion with peers. Nonetheless, this Rose Cafe did allow me to get a quick update on Trump’s policies and how he has spent the beginning of his term.