Summary of April 23, 2015 Town Hall Meeting

Following is a brief summary of the Town Hall meetings on how we have conversations, held Thursday, April 23. Around 40 attended the noon session, and about 30 participated in the evening session. Your support and participation is truly appreciated.

Thank you to Eliza Willis, Chinyere Ukabiala, Opeyemi Awe ’15, and others who helped answer many good and thoughtful questions.

• It’s important to be able to voice one’s experiences without them being invalidated, but it’s also important to contextualize personal experiences.
• How does each of us define respect and how are our own definitions different from others’?
• There is a desire for a clearer follow-up process after our initial conversations.
• There were mixed opinions as to whether professors should discuss issues happening on campus in their classes. Some students wanted them to and others didn’t, and some professors were comfortable doing it while others weren’t.
• How to check people’s microaggressions: Don’t treat it as an attack, do it with kindness and respect.
• Political Correctness: There is a difference between political correctness to a person vs. about an idea.
• When you have tense conversations, are you concerned about winning or contributing to your community?
• It’s difficult to start these conversations because people don’t want to make themselves vulnerable and easily become defensive.