When Brian Senier ’19 woke up the day after the 2016 American presidential election, he was happy to see a Republican victor, albeit not his chosen candidate. But when he left his dorm room, he was surprised to find a different mood hovering over the Holy Cross campus.
“I was really floored by how somber the campus was, so I went to see Fr. Rogers [Rev. Michael Rogers, S.J., ’02] in the Chaplains’ Office,” Senier recalls. “Fr. Rogers said, ‘I don’t think you understand how people are worried about the policies that this administration might enact, and how it could affect their family members who are undocumented.’”
Fr. Rogers exhorted him to attend the Latin American Student Organization event that night to participate in a discussion about the election results. Both men went, and Senier left with a new understanding of the other side’s perspective. His own opinions hadn’t changed, but his mindset had: