This week on Chronversations: Students gather in the Student Center to listen to Columbia Alum Precious Brady-Davis share information about the election.
TRANSCRIPT:
0:09
Welcome back to Chronicle Conversations.
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I’m your host, Aaron Guzman. For campus news this week, on Wednesday, October 9th, over 60 students gathered in the event space of the Student Center for a celebration that included student performances, dinner, as well as conversations regarding the 2024 presidential election. Student Diversity and Inclusion, StudentEengagement and Leadership and Columbia votes have all collaborated to host this event.
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Precious Brady-Davis, the first Black openly trans woman to hold public office in Cook County, discusses her role as commissioner with Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago and highlights the vital needs of younger voices in the upcoming election.
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Brady-Davis expresses the importance of knowledge of health care access, violence against the trans community as well as gun violence.
1:01
Brady-Davis: And so I’m interested in how can we find shared priorities to govern? Because that’s what we’re elected to do in particular, when you’re in public office, we are elected to govern. Everything else is just bluster and rhetoric. I’m not interested in bluster and rhetoric. There are a lot of things at stake.
1:19
Brady-Davis: There are actual needs of the American people where people need resources, people need adequate access to health care. Health care in this country is not affordable. People deserve adequate access to prescription drugs. We have a gun violence problem in this country. We need to tackle gun violence in this country.
1:43
Brady-Davis: There is an epidemic of violence against Black trans women in particular. And I’m sick and tired of the brutality against trans women of color. We have a public health crisis in this country. And so I think that Vice President Kamala Harris is the solution.
2:02
After the interview with Brady Davis, students share feelings of motivation and encouragement after noticing that more people have knowledge about voting and realize how important their votes matter in this upcoming election.
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Jaylen Young: I feel very encouraged in general about people knowing more about voting and how it’s not just like presidents, but it’s also local elections and you know, police boards.
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So I’m just excited for people to know how important their civic privilege is, and all the things they can do with just their vote, their vote matters no matter what.
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Eryn Barlow: I would say the event has been very chill and everyone has honestly been ramped up as far as like, answering questions or asking questions. I just feel like it’s been just very chill and it’s been great.
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Columbia College Chicago will not hold classes on election day, Tuesday, November 5th.
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That’s all for this week. Make sure to stay up to date with campus and metro news at columbiachronicle.com and sign up for our newsletter at columbiachronicle.com/newsletter.
2:57
Don’t forget to check out our new Three C’s podcast where we give credible information to the Columbia community.
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I’m Aaron Guzman. Thanks for listening.