Any job that lists “please refill the condom bowl” as part of my daily duties will inevitably be dear to my heart. Yet beyond promoting safe sex (or at least playing with safe sex aids), my employment at Landis House had taught me a lot about diversity work in college settings. The most meaningful experience I’ve had there, and the catalyst behind so many of the connections I’ve forged over the past year, has been with Sustained Dialogue, the student group I coordinate.
Maybe you haven’t heard of Sustained Dialogue (SD)—I sure hadn’t either until last fall. However, I’m here to inform you, so I hope you’re ready to embrace those dreams of college you’ve only seen in the REM cycle.
Imagine a campus community in which everyone has room to speak their mind, where students can step up and share ideas without censoring or intellectualizing their words. Imagine a space for students to share their individual experiences, to listen and appreciate each other’s differences, not with the hope of changing minds but rather of building community.
Such was the vision Joyce Bylander, then Dean of Students and current Special Advisor to the President for Institutional and Diversity Initiatives (translation: unofficial matriarch of Dickinson and gracious guide for all students), when she brought SD to Dickinson in 2003. Dean Bylander, aware of the division among students and the need for addressing issues of possible contention, contacted Board of Trustees member Carol Jones Saunders ’62, whose husband Harold created the greater SD Campus Network with Princeton University several years earlier. Based on Hal’s experience as a diplomat and peace negotiator, the dialogue format SD promotes was designed to bring the same group of students together over the course of a semester for a chance to really talk about a touchy subject on campus, and to move toward understanding on that subject.
Dickinson’s SD community joined the early growth of Saunders’ network, and enjoyed its own vibrant life. Dean Shalom Staub shepherded the organization following SD’s founding and enriched it with his own expertise in conflict resolution, which is now a part of the Sustained Dialogue skillset. Paula Lima-Jones, the director (queen) of the Office of Diversity Initiatives, is the current advisor of SD—her dynamic insight and commitment to talking as a way to bridge differences has allowed our group to survive over the past years. Over the years we have organized dialogues related to race, class and gender issues on campus. For example, we hosted a “Can We Talk?” discussion in the Kline following the 2011 protest over the College’s sexual assault policy (think Tina Fey in Mean Girls). This past December inaugurated Snickerdoodles for Sustained Dialogue, where cookies and questions were distributed in the library to stimulate conversation about the campus climate. On April 18, SD moderators organized the annual De-Stereotype Me Day and follow-up dialogue as a chance for students to express experiences of being stereotyped and to provide a venue to deconstruct those labels.
This fall marks the ten-year anniversary of Sustained Dialogue at Dickinson College, and we feel it is due time to celebrate. Thanks to a generous budget from Student Senate, our SD group will be putting on a year jam-packed with exciting programs in the 2013-2014 academic year, from our Dinner, Movie and a Dialogue series to a networking event with Dickinson alums and how their participation in SD contributed to their careers and lives beyond the limestone. If you’re interested in learning more about Sustained Dialogue, or would like to build your dialogue and diversity toolkit, I urge you all to come to the Inclusive Leadership Training workshop on the weekend of September 20 or to email me at [email protected] for any more information.
If you’re passionate about realizing and achieving the potential for a more welcoming community at Dickinson and if you’d like to make positive change and learn alongside your fellow students, don’t forget about SD. Our group has existed here for a decade, and based on the dedication of our supporters and the importance of our services, I’d say we’ll be here for much longer. As LL Cool J sung to us so many years ago, don’t call it a comeback—we’ve been here for years!
