DOS Postpones Third Community Time
The administration alerted the faculty on Tuesday that it would postpone this week’s Community Time due to questions and concerns faculty members had raised.
Dean of Students Melissa Mischke emailed faculty members on Tuesday explaining that the administration postponed Community Time due to teachers' concerns that they were not adequately prepared to conduct the planned activity. Originally, students were supposed to write a poem about their identity that they could then choose to share with their dormmates.
“It has come to our attention that there are some faculty who are concerned about tomorrow’s activity for Community Time,” Mischke wrote in an email. “Important questions and concerns have been raised that we cannot resolve tomorrow. So, at this time we are pausing on the activity and giving community time back to students and faculty.”
Due to faculty feedback however, the administration postponed the Community Time activity, replacing it instead with 50 minutes of free time.
“It has come to our attention that there are some faculty who are concerned about tomorrow’s activity for Community Time,” Mischke wrote in an email. “Important questions and concerns have been raised that we cannot resolve tomorrow. So, at this time we are pausing on the activity and giving community time back to students and faculty.”
Mischke and Dean of Residential Life Carol Cahalane emailed dorm faculty on Saturday with details on the Community Time procedure. Some faculty felt, however, that this email came too late for them to sufficiently prepare for Community Time.
“Unfortunately, the email informing us what the community time would be about was sent out over the weekend, so many dorms didn’t think that they would have enough time to adequately plan for the activity, especially since there was a discussion component that required some deliberate and thoughtful sensitivity,” Dunbar Dorm Head and Religion Instructor Jennifer Marx Asch said. “The preparation for the community time activity felt very rushed at the beginning of this week which was already pretty full with midterms and Family Weekend.”
Mischke wrote in the Tuesday email, “There are many schools, who have effectively used this ‘I am’ exercise…I know some dorms felt like this was a well-placed activity, building off earlier dorm community work. But we have heard from others who raise concerns and/or lack of preparedness due to various constraints.”
Marx-Asch added that in general, Community Times have not been adequately planned. “Some faculty feel as though we are told about plans for community times too late and that as a result, activities haven’t been as strong as we would have liked.” she said.
Deans Mischke and Cahalane and Director of Equity and Inclusion Dr. Stephanie Bramlett were unable to comment.
The original plan for Community Time was to explore identity, culture and defining what living in an inclusive community is by asking students to write an ‘"I Am From" poem based off George Ella Lyon’s poem Where I’m From about their identity. Proctors and dormitory faculty would have distributed to students sheets in which they could fill in the blank about their home and religious representation, along with other attributes.
According to Cahalane’s and Mischke’s email, “The important thing is that students take the opportunity to recognize their own cultural background as well as that of their peers.”
The Discussion Guide for the Community Time detailed that the time was meant to explore identity and culture and to define what living in an inclusive community means. A sample script of the Discussion elaborated on Community Time’s purpose. “Whether we are from down the road or across the world, we all came from somewhere before we joined the PEA community. This morning, we are going to take some time to get to know each other’s backgrounds and cultural stories,” the guide said.
Modern Languages Instructor Gina* expressed concerns about the original plan for Community Time. “From where I am standing and based on what students have shared, time and organization were concerns,” she said. “I think we want to be super careful how we manage these sensitive topics so as to avoid any misunderstandings or confusion.”
*Asterisks denote name change to preserve anonymity.