In the midst of a semester with increasing political tension surrounding the new presidential administration, Jaron Larson, an engineering student, formed the student NMC Conservatives group with the help of its faculty advisor, Steve Rice.

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Pursuing his second associate's degree, Larson has claimed to notice a growing trend of anti-conservative messaging on campus and preconceived notions of peoples' character based on their politics, as well as hate messaging on the NMC Conservatives social media pages.

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“It’s a little bit discomforting to just hear people, I guess, not be open minded to other perspectives,” Larson expressed, “Generally, in academia, I think conservatism is less represented.”

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According to a 2023 poll by the AP NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and the University of Chicago Forum for Free Inquiry and Expression, 20% of adults said conservatives have a lot of freedom to express their views on campuses, compared to 47% of adults that say liberals do. For Republicans specifically, 9% said conservatives can express their views, compared to 58% saying liberals can.

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However, Larson wants that perceived atmosphere to change. The NMC Conservatives’ mission statement entails “rejecting polarization and embracing community,” as well as making the club a place for students to discuss ideas and ask questions.

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In my general opinion, I believe in bringing politics back to the dinner table,” he explained, “Like, what kind of things do you talk about at dinner? You don’t talk about things that are diabolical and rude and crazy, and you don’t call people names. Typically, you have civil conversations at the dinner table. So, how do we bring politics back to that environment?”

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Larson says the answer to that entails building productive conversation. He crafted a 20-point code of ethics for his group to aid in this effort, “It's essentially very basic core attributes of values that make a positive community, right? Positive conversation, allow for teamwork, collaboration, and I think a lot of them are basic skills that unfortunately are not so common, right?”

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When it comes to initiating conversation within his group, he clarified that the club’s purpose wasn’t to debate, but rather to build a community-oriented atmosphere where conversations can be welcome.

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“I thought it was just fitting to not take an approach to say ‘Hey, we’re activists,’ but say, ‘Hey, we’re a community.’”

“My goal is to focus on building those relationships,” Larson emphasized, “So that when the conversations do happen, you're not having a conversation with a stranger, you're having a conversation with your friend. That's a big difference.”

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Increasingly, social media has become a main source of people’s news consumption, with 54% of U.S. adults using it as a main source of news, according to a 2024 Pew Research Center fact sheet. Reflecting on the nationwide political climate and the role social media may play into that, Larson expressed a desire to combat the echo chamber environment.

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“Social media has incentive to grow these because, well, that's what people pay attention to,” he explained, “It feeds on their anger and emotions, and now people are divided.”

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“We can make it better by saying, you know, even if our country's in that place, where is Traverse City? Where is NMC?” said Larson, “Are we just gonna follow the leader here, or can we be the leader and do something new and different, and think differently … and we can. It starts with conversation and realizing, hey, we can agree even though we think differently.”

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“Maybe, just maybe, our differences in thought actually complement each other, and maybe if we put our heads together, these problems that seem so damning start to solve themselves.”

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So far, the group has held multiple game nights, and a movie night where they showed the movie Sound of Freedom, an independent film about human trafficking that garnered mixed reviews from critics. Rice appreciated the choice to show a film as a way to connect with others using visual arts.

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“Traverse [City] is a great place with lots of art everywhere, right? [We are] using the arts to create conversations, not to win an argument, but using the arts to create a conversation,” Rice explained, “I just love that idea because I think the arts are a great way to pursue truth, you know? It's kind of a fun way to go about doing things.”

Within the group, there have not been any tense disagreements yet, and Larson explained that when that time comes, it will be a new kind of experience to navigate. He explained that in his view, de-escalation of conversations involves empathy, and not responding to anger with more anger.

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“If someone's angry… chances are you're not gonna change their mind,” he explained, “Sometimes, really the best thing to do is to step away. You know?”

“And in moments where that does happen and you can't step away, I think you almost have to start playing devil's advocate with yourself and just start to really practice that empathy of ‘what is their point in this argument and what can I agree with, if anything?’ And, ‘how could I build that common ground to start to de-escalate?’”