Students in Hillside Community discussed modern women’s issues through the scope of the election as part of a resident assistant event Sunday.

About 15 attendees participated in a game of women’s political Jeopardy and discussed some of the terms used in the game, like “glass ceiling,” Lilly Ledbetter, the Augusta controversy and the Equal Rights Amendment.

Kaitlin Voellinger, one of the RA organizers of the event, said she wanted to educate students about women’s rights.

“They’re just kinda caught up in the Democrat or Republican thing, not thinking about specifically women’s rights and women’s needs,” said Voellinger, a junior majoring in women’s studies. “And a lot of when guys hear about that they just say, ‘That’s women’s issues,’ but I think it’s everyone’s issues.”

Amy Kurtzberg, another organizer and a junior majoring in art history, said she believes the attendees learned from the event.

“I’ve spoken to other students that said they didn’t know a lot of the information, like they didn’t know about the glass ceiling or the Lily Ledbetter act,” Kurtzberg said. “So I think they got a lot out of it and I think they’re more educated, and they’re gonna probably YouTube some videos.”

During Jeopardy, students answered questions about women’s history and about this year’s presidential election. The game also included questions about present conflicts in politics, including who was running for president or vice president, what the Equal Pay Lilly Ledbetter Act is and about recent Republican politicians’ comments about abortion and rape.

Kurtzberg spoke about recent legislation passed by Congress that has affected women’s health, which was one of the main topics of the event.

“Recent bills that have been passed to affect women’s health have put us on a higher pedestal and now I feel we’re taking a step back, or almost back in time, with the issues we brought up in the presentation,” Kurtzberg said. “We don’t want to sway their vote, we just wanted them to be more aware of the issues.”

Roslyn Buxo, a junior majoring in anthropology, said the event was eye-opening.

“It makes me think about the future, things that I should be looking for as I go into the workplace, things that I’m going to face as I get older and even right now as a college student, these are things that I should be paying attention to,” Buxo said.

Voellinger and Kurtzberg said they wanted to inform audience members about the issues without supporting any particular candidate or political party.

“I don’t encourage anyone, I don’t want to persuade anybody, that wasn’t my intention,” Voellinger said. “It was purely giving the information and then people taking that information and doing more.”

Voellinger said, in regards to election issues, that people should be aware of what is going on in the world.

“If something doesn’t seem right, if a woman isn’t being paid the same as a man in the same job, that should spark conversation,” Voellinger said. “It’s not just about money, and the deficit and jobs, there are real other implications by writing Democrat or Republican on the ballot.”