‘No Politics Day’ canceled due to student backlash
Civic Engagement Initiatives challenged its social media followers to imagine a day without politics as part of a week-long Instagram campaign, which sparked controversy among Chapman students. Photo illustration by SAM ANDRUS, Photo Editor
Chapman University’s Civic Engagement team canceled its “No Politics Day” social media campaign after students criticized its timing and intention. Originally designed to promote conversation about self-reflection on political burnout, the intended week-long campaign ended one day after it started Feb. 1 when students took to the comment section of Civic Engagement’s Instagram account to express their displeasure. The overwhelming distaste toward the campaign's messages was further underscored by its launch coinciding with the first day of Black History Month.
“As the Civic Engagement Instagram page, I would assume that their main goal is typically to encourage people to be engaged civically with politics,” said O’Neil Rudolph, a freshman communication studies major. “I found it kind of shocking and ironic that they were almost encouraging civic disengagement.”
According to Shishei Tsang, a program coordinator for Student Engagement, the idea for the campaign came from Holiday Insights, a website that posts content regarding various annual holidays.
“The official definition of ‘No Politics Day’ is really coming from addressing burnout,” Tsang said. “When all sides of people are so focused on politics, is there ever going to be a break? Or can there even be a break where people can stop talking about it for a second, regroup and go back to it?”
Tsang released an apology Feb. 2 and clarified the campaign’s purpose on the Civic Engagement Initiatives Instagram account, emphasizing that she hoped the campaign would generate conversation and reflection among students.
“No Politics Day was intended to be a reflection on the burnout that can come from politics. A way to see the importance of politics and how it shapes communities; but also how it can drain us as humans,” Tsang wrote in her statement on behalf of the Civic Engagement Initiatives team.
The apology was met with varying reactions. Rudolph said she found the language used in the apology to be condescending and dismissive.
“Of course, their goal in posting this was not to get the backlash they're receiving,” Rudolph said. “But, at the end of the day, whatever people feel hurt by is what they need to apologize for, rather than just what they personally perceived to be wrong about their actions. I feel like they were trying to take the smallest amount of responsibility possible.”
Other students acknowledged the good work done by Civic Engagement in the past, reminding students that the Chapman organization remains their ally, despite this mistake.
“I hope this doesn’t ruin a lot of the good work they have done, but they should take a few more steps to make amends for what happened,” said Joy Joukhadar, a member of Chapman Democrats and a sophomore English, sociology and political science triple major.
The project, Tsang said, was intended to present a new daily prompt — as the first and only prompt simply asked, “What does a day without politics look like to you?” The students who responded in the comments section would then be entered into a giveaway for back-to-school items. Instead of uploading additional questions, however, Civic Engagement posted only three times: one introductory post, the first day’s prompt and an apology before canceling the campaign.
A few of the offended students’ comments read, “tone deaf and ignorant. do better” from @dreams_and_gardens and “lmao what...and at the start of black history month???” from @ariannapaine. Another comment from @mean_emma read, “this is a disgusting display of privilege. guiding young people to actively suppress their beliefs is the exact opposite of what a legitimate educational institution stands for.”
Following The Panther’s Feb. 2 interview with Tsang, the volume of comments criticizing the social media campaign only continued to increase. In a clarifying email sent Feb. 2 to The Panther, Tsang explained that after reviewing the student feedback, Civic Engagement decided against posting the remaining prompts for the week.
Amea Wadsworth, a sophomore English major, felt compelled to speak out against the concept of “No Politics Day” in the comment section.
“Personally, I don’t think anything is apolitical,” Wadsworth told The Panther. “Civic Engagement needs to understand that none of their students live apolitical lives.”
Cristina Molina, a senior communication studies major, pointed out that if students are dissatisfied with programming done by campus organizations like Civic Engagement, there are other opportunities for them to get involved. She advised students to put in the work to create change at Chapman, not limiting their activism to the “cheap work of being cruel in a comment section.”
“(Civic Engagement) has done so much work for people of color and BIPOC in general,” Molina said. “I know the amount of work they have put in to promote civic engagement and promote diversity on campus.”
Although Tsang clarified that the campaign had good intentions, some students still believed the messaging could have been addressed differently.
“I wish that the original post was, ‘How do you deal with burnout from political engagement?’ or or ‘Is it possible to live life without politics?’” Wadsworth said. “Which clearly from our responses, the answer is, ‘No.’”
Read a guest columnist’s open letter to Civic Engagement Initiatives here.