Rachel Vitello
Equinox Staff
“We can’t teach humanity, but I believe we can model it,” said KSC Interim President Melinda Treadwell at the first Campus Community Dialogue session. The open listening session was held in the Mountain View Room on Friday, Sept. 18. The session was an opportunity for students, faculty and staff to come together to discuss the complexities of freedom of speech, appropriate and inappropriate speech. This session was the first of four.
These sessions were introduced to campus in an effort to get in front of any future issues regarding freedom of speech. Associate Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion, Dottie Morris, said, “We didn’t want it to be a reaction to something. We wanted to be proactive and find ways we can have these kind of conversations when, quote, nothing is happening. It’s more about the national discussion.”
The session consisted of a wide range of topics. Attendees shared personal stories of times they encountered speech that they did not deem appropriate and how that made them feel. Microaggressions, triggers and the differences between civil discourse and freedom of speech were also subjects brought up.
Students discussed how the environments and towns they come from and the people they used to be surrounded by have effected what they know about other cultures today. After the session, KSC first-year Angelina Jeremiah said, “I definitely learned a lot about where people come from and how what you say can really affect someone.” Jeremiah also said that she plans on attending more of the sessions after experiencing this one.
This open dialogue and exchange of ideas is exactly what Morris was hoping for. “Faculty, staff, students, I’m just hoping everyone can come together so we can have these conversations. Just the openness to express themselves and to inform the process, we want it [the conversations] to be co-created. I want to know what people are thinking about these topics,” Morris said.
Another reason these sessions are being held is due to an effort by Treadwell to increase the importance of this topic on campus. KSC Title IX coordinator, Jeffrey Maher, said, “President Treadwell has identified free speech and speech issues as a priority for this campus for this year. Her emphasis on the importance of this topic and how we communicate, ultimately through difference, is what led to the development of these listening sessions.”
Maher also said that the acknowledgement of differences across campus is what is going to help open communication.
“We’re hoping that the students are going to be fully engaged in this conversation and that we will see a broad and diverse student group, whether they be of a gender identity or race or religion or a whole other persuasion, that there will be an opportunity to come together and to explore ways we can acknowledge that we have different beliefs and different values, but communicate through those differences in a respectful way,” Maher said.
The sessions will be held again on Friday Sept. 28 at 10 a.m. in the Mountain View Room, Wednesday Oct. 3 at 5 p.m. in Centennial Hall and Thursday Oct. 4 at 2 p.m. in the Mountain View Room.
Rachel Vitello can be contacted at
rvitello@kscequionox.com
