PEA Students Discuss Core Values, Goals

Exeter hosted its inaugural Day of Dialogue last Saturday, cancelling A format classes and using the meetings format to allot an hour and 45 minute block for the event. The event’s purpose was to serve as an opportunity for open conversation on important values within the community. While optional for faculty members, students were required to participate. Some voices commended the intention of the event, but many considered it disorganized and questioned its relevance.

The format of the event was different than other community discussions. As opposed to discussing the values in advisory groups, students of all grades were placed randomly in groups of 12. One or two student listeners, dorm proctors, team captains or members of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day Committee facilitated each group, reading off of a script. Similarly unconventional was how students conversed by passing a talking piece, instead of participating in a Harkness discussion. Faculty had the same procedure for their groups.

“I appreciate the effort of encouraging dialogue within the community about issues that pertain to all of us on campus,” Xu said.

For many, this change in discussion felt unnatural. “I thought it seemed very scripted and unnatural because the talking piece was just an odd thing to use at a school where we already do Harkness everyday,” lower Aiwen Desai said. “I feel like the participants and the facilitators came in not really knowing what we were supposed to be talking about, so I didn’t feel like there were any constructive conversations that happened.”

However, as explained in the script, this different approach to discussion was designed to allow all voices at the table to participate. “Everyone will have an opportunity to talk…we will not have to respond immediately as we will all have our chance if we want to speak,” the script given to facilitators stated.

Adults seemed to appreciate the change in format. History Instructor William Jordan took a positive view on the Day of Dialogue. “I think it was useful and interesting. Maybe the value of this is to help us refine Harkness and make us think about that a little,” he said.

However, lower Cristal Reyes had qualms about the fixed format. “They gave us the option to just pass on the questions, but I feel like people just passed because they didn’t care,” she said. “I wish there were more people who actually cared about what was going on or actually made an effort to participate.” Reyes’s group conversation ended after just 20 minutes.

On the other hand, some students appreciated the opportunity to talk with new people. “I liked that the groups were random,” lower Pepper Pieroni said. “I got to meet new people, and I got to learn personal stories from them without necessarily having met them before.”

Lower and student facilitator Tatum Schutt thought the structure of the event prevented her group from having a deeper conversation. “I had the feeling that we stayed really surface level in all of our conversation because no one was able to answer or respond to anyone else’s question or respond to what other people had said. We weren’t able to get deep about what anyone else had said,” Schutt said.

Senior and facilitator Alexis Lee felt the same, expressing frustration with the small breathing exercise and poem reading that prefaced and concluded the session. “Some of the things in the script were just too much. I was facilitating, and I was thinking, ‘I have to read this poem at the end? Nobody will take this seriously,’” Lee said. “They had such good intentions, but I really don’t think it went by well.”

Lee pointed that these issues were indicative of a greater issue with the organization of the event. “The thing that frustrated me was those weren’t exactly problems that were difficult to fix. If [the organizers] just thought about it before and put a little more thought into it, they would realize teenagers will never take this seriously,” Lee said.

Reyes echoed a similar sentiment. “There were a lot of people who seemed like they didn’t want to be there,” Reyes said. “I guess maybe do not do it on Saturday. It seemed like so many people just wanted to take a nap and sleep—it was pretty early in the morning, too.”

Disregarding the fatigue that some students experienced during the event, some say they benefited from the different format of the day. In particular, lower Rose Coviello believed there were some advantages of having random groups. “We were given an opportunity to talk, whether that actually happened or not. The concept of trying to talk and hear different perspectives was good because normally your friends or the people you usually talk to will all have similar perspectives. So being in a random group with people you don’t know will expose you to new things,” Coviello said.

Prep Philip Horrigan looked forward to the future of the Day of Dialogue. “I think the topic wasn’t well chosen, yet there is room for improvement so I think that may turn out useful,” he said.

For senior Anzi DeBenedetto, the event had both positive and negative aspects. “While I think it was a useful exercise in communicating with our peers, it was pretty much exactly what I had in mind,” DeBenedetto said. “I thought that it would basically be a circle of people [criticizing] the administration, which I’m so sick and tired of, and that’s what happened.”

Other Exonians questioned the topic of discussion: personal and community values. “I think the subject matter was kind of unspecific and super broad. The questions [on the script] were supposed to help us focus, but I don’t think they really did,” Lee said.

However, some felt that the event was nevertheless important. Prep Haya Firas wanted the ideas discussed in student groups to be communicated to the administration. “I think it would have been beneficial if everything we talked about was passed on to faculty who would later pass it on to the administration. But [because there were only students], I think it was almost like an echochamber instead of getting change done,” Firas said.

Senior Greg Miller agreed that the current format made the event have no impact towards changing the community. “You know after this we’re just going to return to what was before,” he said.

However, regardless of the actual impact of the event, upper Jeremy Xu acknowledged the event’s good intentions. “I appreciate the effort of encouraging dialogue within the community about issues that pertain to all of us on campus,” Xu said.

Associate Chief of Multicultural Affairs Hadley Camilus described the day as a step towards more discussion and engagement within the community. “I don’t know who will benefit the most. But I hope it’s a prelude of what’s to come here in terms of an institutional commitment to graduating students who possess the wherewithal to engage in difficult dialogue and the bandwidth to see it through,” Camilus said.