Students launch dialogue to promote diversity and acceptance

BY ALEXANDRA CAMPBELL-FERRARI
Staff Writer

The Elephant in the Room is an organization that was introduced to the campus by Abbey Radis ’06, Jitu Patel ’07, Ben Reiter ’06, Alexandra Madsen ’08 and Nicole Bojanowski ’08 to foster discussion about issues that are normally avoided.

The group held its first set of Intergroup Dialogue sessions this semester.

"[The Elephant in the Room seeks to] engage participants in an informal, collaborative learning experience that leads to great cross-group communication and understanding," Director of Service Learning Janice Butler said.

"Through our dialogues, we hope to create higher intergroup consciousness and a greater degree of equity and social justice within the participants’ context," Madsen said.

So what are these Dialogues?

"Intergroup Dialogue is a facilitated discussion in which eight to 10 people from two or more social or cultural identity groups come together each week to explore the issues that exist between members and attempt to build bridges across groups," Butler said.

It is through these dialogues that the student leaders hope to patch up the ever-widening divide between people of all identities who do not address such divides.

"Regardless of which group you identify yourself with, there is a tension among different social identity groups on this campus, and it is continually growing," Patel said. "Intergroup dialogue was created by five concerned students who wanted to bring students from various social groups with tensions together and build new bridges across these groups."

This semester, two dialogues have been in session. The first was between Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Awareness (LBGT) and heterosexual students. The second was between black students and Caucasian students. Each group met weekly for two-hour sessions over the course of eight weeks.

There were two inspirations that encouraged these students to develop such a program. The first was a colloquium series on civic engagement sponsored by the Service-Learning Office in 2003. One of the featured speakers was Hal Saunders, a career diplomat who has worked with international government policy makers and citizen groups. Saunders’ main goal is to teach others to employ peaceful conflict resolution strategies when faced with ethnic, racial, religious and political tensions.

Saunders established the International Institute for Sustained Dialogue and developed a program at his alma mater, Princeton, that promotes participation in public affairs and promotes civic engagement among students.

Radis attended Saunders’ program and was inspired to start a dialogue program at the University.

The second inspiration was an alternative service- learning trip in March, 2005 called "Civil Rights: The Unfinished Journey."

Patel, Reiter, Madsen and Bojanowski returned from this trip to Memphis, Tenn., inspired to generate dialogue between different identity groups on campus.

Together, these five students worked together to create The Elephant in the Room.

Their first event was a three-day training session in January, facilitated by staff from the University of Maryland, for about 20 interested students and staff. Out of this workshop came the two current Intergroup Dialogue sessions held this semester.

"Starting dialogue among students of different backgrounds and different identities seemed like a great step in the right direction, so I signed up for the LGBT/Straight Dialogue. I wasn’t sure what to expect at first, but I’m so glad I decided to do it. The facilitators were very well prepared, and I have gotten so much out of the program," Heather Riebeling ’07 said. "I thought of myself as quite open-minded and well-informed on LGBT issues going into the dialogue, but I definitely learned a lot, gained perspective and challenged some of my personal views on a variety of issues."

Students in The Elephant in the Room aim to increase the amount of dialogues offered and to recruit more students in the years to come. They hope to offer dialogues between men and women, Muslims, Jews and Christians, foreign-born and native-born Americans, Greeks and non-Greeks and more.

If you are interested, please email Janice Butler at butler@bucknell.edu.