Working Group on Campus Discourse

Over the course of 2014–15, the working group developed a plan for a year-long series of events, education and communication that fosters a deep understanding of the responsibilities and challenges to open and fruitful discourse in a networked world. The goal is to address current needs in our community as well as establish a framework that will serve Smith in the future when facing contentious and complex issues. We will aim to create a transparent process that engages students, faculty, staff and alumnae and leads to a campus community that cherishes dissent and welcomes widely divergent views. We envision a period of task force brainstorming and feedback from those four communities, followed by programming and recommendations.

Spring 2015

Tuesday, February 10

• Advanced plans for spring event planning: February, Race and Politics; March, Free Speech; April, Gender Matters.
• Identified leadership roles for each event and conversations.

Tuesday, March 3

• Debriefed February 23 conversation on the theme of Race Politics, which followed the February 23 Claudia Rankine reading and used the big question, "How Are We Seen?"
• Broke into two smaller groups to refine programming for Speech and Gender Matters events.

Tuesday, April 28

• Discussed plans for the April 30 Gender Matters conversations following the talk by Jennifer Finney Boylan.
• Shared insights that were gathered from the February 23 Race and Politics Conversation following the Claudia Rankine reading and the March 30 Speech Panel and Conversations.
• Discussed recommendations for next year.

Fall 2014

Tuesday, October 28

• Developed groundrules to guide work including listening to understand, bringing candor and respect, and being willing to change our minds
• Reviewed the Working Group Charge and ideas that have been collected from the community, which included suggestions for speakers, panels, teach-ins and topics to address
• Began discussion of group’s focus and goals for 2014–15, which tended toward capacity-building programming
• Will refine and focus goals at November meetings and divide into smaller working groups

Thursday, November 13, noon–1 p.m.

• Brainstormed questions that can guide our work, including: How do we engage (in) uncomfortable conversations?
• Advanced discussion of Working Group’s focus and identified two related areas of programming—programming that fosters a culture of open inquiry and programming that improves understanding of campus speech policies and practices
• Will meet in small groups during November 21 meeting to develop next steps for programming

Friday, November 21, noon–1 p.m.

• Broke into two smaller working groups to begin work on programming—Toolkits and Panels.
• The Toolkits group’s goal was to identify programming that will invite wider community participation in the task of strengthening campus discourse and provide resources for doing so. They spoke with Rabbi Josh Feigelson, Founder and Director of Ask Big Questions, to learn more about the structured model of conversation this organization offers.
• The Panel group’s goal was to sketch a series of panels on speech-related topics that would include diverse groups of panelists with multiple perspectives who could model deliberation and disagreement in an open and fruitful way. They identified shared interests that could be explored in a panel and began discussing the format and structure for a panel series.
• Will work on developing a training with Ask Big Questions during January term and begin planning a panel series for the spring semester.