Students stood at a podium on the Quad to give speeches about civility, civil justice and civil discourse at an event on Tuesday.

The Communications Department held the event, called Civility Matters, from 9:30 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. Alongside the speeches, the Art Department and the League of Women Voters set up tables.

“Civility Matters was an event that was an opportunity for students to gather outdoors, to have an open forum, to speak about issues that they care about that have to do with how we communicate, what we wish we could communicate about with others,” April Copes, a communications professor who co-hosted the event, said.

The Communications Department holds Civility Matters annually in the fall, and an event called Soapbox Sisters in the spring, where students read famous speeches and poems by women.

Renesha Alphonso, the director of communications for Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman, talked about how to be civically engaged and why it is so important.

“There’s an old saying that if you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu,” Alphonso said.  “If you’re not making yourself part of the decision making, the decisions are going to get made for you to keep you out regardless.”

Students who attended the event said the speakers’ messages resonated with them.

“I feel so inspired and like a fire has been lit under me to change my own community for the better,” Rebecca Merkel, a sophomore psychology student, said.