Foreign policy, bipartisanship, immigration, and midterm elections were among the conversation topics Tuesday night at Wilks Theater.

So, too, were the Miami University experiences of Paul Ryan ’92 and Shefali Razdan Duggal ’93 — and a friendship that started with studying together at Shriver Center and has endured through their prominent political careers.

Razdan Duggal, the United States’ Ambassador to the Netherlands from 2022-2025, and Ryan, Speaker of the House of Representatives from 2015-2019, returned to their alma mater as part of the annual JANUS Forum. The event, titled “Two Miamians, One Ballot: Lives of Public Service,” drew a large crowd to Armstrong Student Center’s Wilks Theater.

Moderated by Nate Novak, president of the JANUS Forum and a junior Political Science major with a Business Leadership co-major, the near 90-minute presentation offered the longtime friends a platform to discuss several issues surrounding the current political landscape, as well as reminisce about their own Miami memories.

“I look upon my time here with nothing but just gratefulness, gratitude. I have lots and lots of friends from here,” said Ryan, who noted he and Razdan Duggal became “study buddies” during his junior year. “I don’t even know if we knew each other’s politics in those days. We’re obviously from other sides of the aisle, but we’ve maintained our strong friendship for many, many years.”

Shefali Razdan Duggal, a 1993 Miami University graduate, speaks during the JANUS Forum on Oct. 13.

Both Ryan and Razdan Duggal espoused the benefits of public service, as well as the importance of a bipartisan approach.

“We developed a really strong friendship, and you are also developing really strong friendships amongst your peers right now,” Razdan Duggal said. “Don’t let the differences hinder the ability to develop a close relationship.”

Born in India, Razdan Duggal moved to Cincinnati at a young age and was raised by a single mother. She majored in Mass Communication with a Political Science minor at Miami before earning her Master of Arts from New York University in 1996. She went on to receive multiple appointments from President Barack Obama.

“For me, service was driven heavily on a pay it forward and pay it back mentality,” Razdan Duggal said. “Pay it back in terms of what it allowed my mother and I to experience in the United States, and pay it forward so someone else can follow. You have to be able to find compromise in one another.”

Paul Ryan graduated from Miami in 1992.

Public service, Ryan said, is a “great calling.”

A Political Science and Economics major, Ryan was 28 when he was elected to the House of Representatives in 1998. The Wisconsin native was the Republican vice presidential nominee with Mitt Romney during the 2012 U.S. presidential election.

“The way you can conduct public service is the way you should want to conduct your life. Do it with humility. Do it with respect,” Ryan said. “What’s missing a lot of the times in our politics today is this idea that you can’t get along with someone who doesn’t think or look like you. We’ve been buddies for a long time. We don’t think like each other. We don’t look like each other. And our friendship surpasses all those kinds of differences that we’ve had. That’s a friendship we made here at Miami.”

Novak kept the program flowing with both prepared questions and audience inquiries provided through Slido.com.

The evening’s final query focused on young voters. Ryan relayed a story about his time working on John Boehner’s congressional campaign as a college student delivering yard signs and literature about 30 minutes from Oxford.

Like Ryan, Boehner too served as Speaker of the House.

“Get involved,” Ryan said. “Get involved early. You can make a difference at a young age. You really can. That’s what’s cool about this country. That’s what’s cool about our system. Don’t be apathetic.

“It’s a really cool system we have. We get upset about it. We get frustrated about it. But if you get involved, you’ll understand it and you’ll be able to make a difference in it.”

A large crowd was in attendance for the JANUS Forum on Oct. 13 in Wilks Theater.

Razdan Duggal shared similar sentiments and advice.

“Be active. Every vote does matter,” Razdan Duggal said. “I would take it one step further, if you have a moment, to just research democracies or systems around the world to realize what an incredible privilege and power it is to vote.”

Held twice a year, the JANUS Forum is sponsored by the Department of Political Science and supported by Thomas W. Smith ’50 and the Menard Family Center for Democracy.

Vivien Holmes, a sophomore Diplomacy and Global Politics and Economics double major, introduced the program. Holmes thanked Smith for his encouragement and support of the JANUS Forum.

“Mr. Smith’s goal was to help make Miami a national leader in intellectual discourse, and his continued investment supports the free exchange of ideas, models civil conversation between people who disagree, and helps all of us form more informed and nuanced views than we would by hearing only one side,” Holmes said.