Nafees Alam, assistant professor in the School of Social Work, published “President Biden – the Unifier in Chief?” in Inside Sources.
As the national approval rating for President Joe Biden continued to sink, Alam noticed an interesting trend from members of all political ideals. People were uniting together through a shared feeling of dissatisfaction about his presidency so far, despite being in different political parties, he said.
Alam also noticed a change within higher education faculty and students – programs such as economics, STEM, social work, psychology, and sociology have become more unified, Alam says.
“I’ve recently witnessed something I never thought I would: a MAGA hat-wearing student befriending a Bernie shirt-wearing student, coming together not for a common cause but a common enemy: Biden.”
How we conduct conversations and debate with each other has shifted as well, and we’ve become more curious about what we hear, are starting to do our own research and being more open to the opinions of others, he said. However, it’s still unknown if this will continue past Biden’s presidency, but Alam has hope for a more curious society in the years to come.
“A more curious nation yields a more educated nation. As an educator, what more could I ask?”