PEA Campus Readies for Inaugural Day of Dialogue

Exeter will host its inaugural Day of Dialogue this Saturday. Planned by Director of Student Well-Being Christina Palmer, the day will serve as an opportunity for students and faculty members to engage in conversation about Exeter’s community values. However, some concerns have arisen around an unequal ratio of female and male teachers who will attend.

The Academy will cancel Saturday’s A format classes in order to offer time to foster the conversations. The dialogue will extend into the meetings block.

“We encounter difficult conversations all the time, and the Exeter Day of Dialogue will provide an opportunity to develop trust and strengthen our community,” Dean of Studies and Academic Affairs Brooks Moriarty noted.

Throughout the winter, approximately 40 faculty members participated in two “restorative justice” events, similar to the Day of Dialogue planned for Saturday. Many of those faculty members helped to train student leaders last weekend, including proctors and student listeners, in preparation for Saturday’s discussions.

Senior Molly Canfield, a proctor and student listener in Bancroft Hall who attended one of these training workshops, noticed the discrepancy between female and male faculty members in attendance. “I don’t recall seeing a single male faculty member [at the workshop],” Canfield said. Of the 40 faculty members in the initial restorative justice training, only five were male.

Saturday’s discussion is intended to help create a forum for Exonians to talk about key issues in the community. “We encounter difficult conversations all the time, and the Exeter Day of Dialogue will provide an opportunity to develop trust and strengthen our community,” Dean of Studies and Academic Affairs Brooks Moriarty noted in his email to Exonians.

Fellow students, including dorm proctors, student listeners, team captains and members of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day Committee will help lead the talks. Every session will be made of up of a randomized combination of 12 students, rather than based off of dorms or advisee groups as in previous opportunities for conversation.

Instead of Harkness, Exeter will pilot a system meant to prioritize conversation through the use of a “talking piece.” Students will gather around a circle, as in Harkness, but instead a rock or other object will be handed around the table, giving each participant a chance to speak. At any given time, only the person with the talking piece can speak. Rather than debate, every participant will try to share their story or respond to the question.

However, some had problems with the format of the discussions. Member of Martin Luther King Jr. Committee Margery*, who attended the training workshop, raised concerns that the use of this talking piece could detract from the authenticity of the conversation. “We are trained in Harkness for the whole time we’re at Exeter, and we’ve learned how to utilize this method of conversation,” Margery said. “During our mock conversations during the training sessions, I couldn’t help but notice a sense of artificiality.”

History Instructor Michael Golay agreed with this sentiment. “In all candor, I’m skeptical about the talking stone,” he said. “That suggests monologue to me, not dialogue, conversation, [and] strikes me as anti-Harkness.”

Assistant Director of Student Activities Kelly McGahie thought the day would be a great opportunity. “For me, I thought, here’s this whole new way of being here, of being present, of listening, of also speaking your own truth. I thought, wow, maybe there’s a tool we can use here,” she said.

For History Instructor Aykut Kilinc, the value of the day lies in the idea that it will allow Exonians to talk about what keeps them together. “I hope we will be able to talk about what keeps us together, confirm some of our values, hopefully it will bring us closer,” he said.

Chinese Instructor Ming Fontaine said that while she only represents one opinion, this event is critical to improving the Exeter community for the better, even at the expense of students’ class time. “The event is optional to faculty. But even if I go and only ten people show up, I will still be there and engaged. This is so important,” Fontaine said.

Despite some initial concerns, many Exonians and faculty alike look forward to the day. “I used to feel like I knew what the school stood for. I’m not so sure anymore. It seems to me we’ve become an institution rather than a community,” Golay said. “Maybe the program will be a start in pushing us in the other direction — toward community.”

Lower Janey McGowan looks forward to the premise of such a discussion. “This is the first time we’ve ever had an event like this on our campus, and it’s a discussion that we really need to have,” McGowan said. “I think some people may be apprehensive because this is the first time we’ve held an event like this, but this is the first step to something much bigger.”