Dialogues Speak to Diversity

A Different Dialogue, Georgetown's diversity program that aims to foster conversation about hot-button topics that underlie college life, has grown in size but narrowed in focus as the program enters its third year.

"I think the one thing that we've learned is to make sure that everything is really localized and focused on Georgetown [students'] experiences," Area Coordinator for the Southwest Quad Bill Huff said.

The dialogues grew out of a series of working groups that reflected on diversity in the context of academics, admission and student life. The working groups were created in 2009 by University President John J. DeGioia in response to incidents that exposed insensitivity to underrepresented groups on campus.

The project was originally spearheaded by DeGioia, representatives from the Office of Residence Life and the Center for Multicultural Equity and Access and a consultant from the University of Maryland.

The dialogues are designed to give students a safe space to talk about who they are and how they construct their identities and to teach students how to discuss these sensitive topics.

"The problem is, the reason we don't talk about them is because they are hot-button issues that make us get nervous and stop talking," Huff said.

Hanna Woodburn (GRD '13), the graduate assistant for A Different Dialogue, believes the program is important to Georgetown because it provides an outlet to discuss topics that hit close to home for students.

"Our social class dialogue … is really popular because there are certain perceptions and misperceptions about the socioeconomic status of students who are at Georgetown," she wrote in an email.

The dialogues encourage students to apply the discussions to other aspects of their lives, a practice that facilitates the acquisition of lifelong communication skills and an appreciation for different perspectives, according to Woodburn.

The A Different Dialogue program offers three discussion topics every semester; each dialogue runs for seven weeks. Each dialogue program consists of two facilitators and eight to 14 student participants who meet for dinner and discussion two hours a week.

The conversations differ from typical classroom discussions because they follow a more casual format, according to Jacqueline Mac, who is a facilitator of the dialogues, like Huff, and a program coordinator for the CMEA.

"The way that you're talking with staff members is not the same as talking to professors in a class setting, so it helps build a relationship between the students and the facilitators," she said.

The program leaders are attempting to make the dialogues more accessible to a wider audience through an email, flyering and word-of-mouth marketing campaign. Presently, the discussions are not offered for credit because facilitators do not want them to resemble a typical college class where the goal is the final grade.

"This isn't about product," Huff said. "A lot of college is final papers and final tests, but this whole thing is about process. It's about skills."