Dickinson students are reporting mixed feelings concerning President Margee Ensign’s new intercultural task force.

The task force arose from Ensign’s commitment to develop “global citizens who know how to get things done.” When asked if there was a concern that Dickinson did not already have enough intercultural awareness, Brenda Bretz ’95, who is heading the task force as the vice president for institutional effectiveness and inclusivity, stated she believes the school already prioritizes a global perspective. “It’s a value of this institution,” she said.

These sentiments were shared by Joyce Bylander, the vice president and dean of student life. “I think Dickinson has forward thinking in trying to prepare global citizens,” she said. “But again, we will always be working towards becoming better.”

For some students, “becoming better” has evolved just over the last few years. “When I first came to Dickinson, I think Dickinson was not as diverse as much as I wanted it to be,” said Preeti Khanal ’19, an international student. And yet, the school’s environment has shifted for Khanal. “Dickinson has been trying a lot,” she said. “There’s been a lot of clubs that have been initiated or have been in the spotlight.”

Although supportive of these new efforts, Katia Umutoni ’19, who is also an international student, said there needs to be a lot more student involvement. “There isn’t inclusivity,” she said.

“Things that have to do with intercultural experiences only concern a certain group of people here at Dickinson who are interested in it,” Umutoni said. “And then you have the rest of Dickinson too that’s also in their own bubble and what’s the point of diversity if you don’t close the gap between those two communities?”

This task force will aim to address that question. Bretz said that the efforts of this task force will focus on remaining “multi-faceted” with the aim to increase awareness about the intercultural events, resources, and outlets that are present. She and Bylander also said that the task force is working on finding students who will get involved in developing the task force’s initiatives.

For Khanal, she said that she believes the task force will be important for the campus community. “I think it just generally changes a person to be more open-minded,” she said. And yet, others think the college should exercise caution to avoid a continued trend of over-generalization.

Cheyenne Bailey ’18 does not think that an intercultural awareness program could have prepared her for the cultural differences she encountered when studying abroad in England last year. “I think that’s something that you have to literally leave your space and experience,” she said. “There’s nothing that you can really teach about a singular… culture or anything because I don’t think that it’s monolithic.”

The task force faced initial criticism earlier in the semester for hosting a speaker who some thought made overarching cultural generalizations, as The Dickinsonian reported.

In support of the task force, Bretz said that sometimes the first steps to understanding other cultures include making generalizations that can be critiqued and analyzed. “We all recognize that generalizations about a culture are absolutely necessary in order to have some basic entree into culture,” she said. “But, none of us would ever accept that that is the end, that that’s it.

As the college moves forward with the task force, these issues will remain in the minds of those leading it. Bylander emphasized the importance of keeping an open mind. She said “it’s really about preparing folks to be out in a world that’s really increasingly diverse and complicated.”