New program adopted to facilitate discussions

The Honest Conversations Program being used by Student Life

In an effort to make dialogue about race at Oberlin concrete, the division of Student Life and Services is in the beginning stages of implementing the Honest Conversations program.

The program is a model distributed free of cost by the National Council of Christians and Jews which is designed to create a faciliated conversation about difficult issues.

According to Fred Lassen, protestant chaplain in the Office of Chaplains, the program is designed to allow discussion of issues in a "safe but not sanitized" atmosphere. He said it is also based strongly on the idea of using individuals' experience and knowledge as a starting point, rather than relying on instruction and teaching.

Staff of the Student Life division participated in one session of training before Spring Break with representatives from the National Council. The staff decided to go through the entire program - which consists of a series of five sessions - this Spring before opening the program up to the community in the Fall.

Julia Nieves, assistant dean of student life and services, said she is excited about the program especially at the staff level. "It is an effort for us to deal with some issues as well," she said. "We don't necessarily deal with these big issues ourselves."

Dean of Student Life and Services Charlene Cole-Newkirk is also excited about the program. "Oberlin is a learning community and we need to keep learning from each other," she said.

At the Board of Trustees meeting before Srpring Break the trustees expressed support for the program. "I was heartened to hear the trustees would be interested in participating as well," Cole-Newkirk said.

The program is being organized by the Multicultural Resource Center and the Office of Chaplains. Divisional staff will be able to participate voluntarily in the five-session program and assess it.

Nieves said through this participation the staff will be avoid being hypocritial by asking members of the community to participate in things they had not.

Cole-Newkirk's vision of the expansion of the program in the fall is tentative, but could involve town residents, residents of Kendall nursing home as well as students, faculty and staff.

Nieves said she is interested in seeing what does emerge from the sessions. They are set up so the final session allows for concrete development of ideas to address problems, according to Lassen. Both he and Cole-Newkirk stressed this action aspect of the program.

Lasses also said the format of facilitated conversations can be adapted to other issues, and that the content of specific sessions can be fine-tuned for a group.

Cole-Newkirk gave the example of this kind of flexibility as well. She said a group could opt to see a particular movie or read a particilar book which was especially powerful.