Students can be an apathetic bunch when it comes to educating themselves about social issues. Even those of us who make that a goal have to fit it in with our busy lives of school and work, all while trying to have friends and a social life.
That’s why the groups that put together social programming – those events that try to inform the student body about important social issues – have such a difficult job. Getting students to care about issues, even important ones, can be hard when those issues seem far away. And that’s why the Campus Week of Dialogue on Race Relations has been so impressive.
In slating an array of discussion events that tackle one of the central social issues within the student body, event planners have given themselves a challenging task. Issues of prejudice and social segregation cut straight to the heart of students’ values and-known or unknown-prejudices.
Planners hit the target by focusing on open and honest discussion as a means to raise awareness and understanding. Many social programming events seek to convince an audience of a specific viewpoint; in a discussion format, truth emerges through the active exchange of ideas. In this discussion arena, students are empowered to examine their own lives critically, as well as contribute to campus-wide dialogue on a meaningful issue. Given both the importance and complexity of these subjects, the choice of format was a good one.
The slate of topics has covered important angles on race relations. Ranging from the self-imposed social segregation that emerges within the student body to questions of what the role of race-centered student groups should be, the Campus Week of Dialogue has taken on issues that often go unconsidered, but are nonetheless vitally important.They are the sort of topics that, when heard, strike the listener as obvious, and yet they are rarely topics of conversation. We should care why cafeteria tables are often segregated by race, but we rarely consider it. That sort of reaction underscores the quality of topics chosen.
But if results are the bottom line, how does this program stand up? While not likely to dramatically change the nature of race relations within the student body, the Campus Week of Dialogue does succeed in making many aware of these issues and should be considered a success for that. In then falls on the student body to take the remaining steps.