As part of a campus-wide “Working Together” initiative outlined by President Safa Zaki last March following the Students for Justice in Palestine encampment in Smith Union, the College will be inviting speakers to campus over the course of the year as part of the newly announced Viewpoint Exchange program. Seven lectures on various topics related to current events are scheduled for this semester, all of which will connect to themes of strengthening open discourse across ideological differences.

The speaker series begins on Wednesday, when Loretta J. Ross, an activist, scholar, public intellectual and cofounder of the reproductive justice movement will deliver a lecture titled, “The Radical Power of Calling in Those You’d Rather Cancel.”

Senior Vice President for Inclusion and Diversity Benje Douglas, who has been heavily involved in planning the Viewpoint Exchange program, expressed a hope that the talks will foster greater self-reflection and curiosity about other people’s perspectives on current events.

“I think the most profound way we can change the trajectory of campus is having really healthy relationships,” Douglas said. “One of the building blocks of healthy relationships is communication. So if we have better communication and better conversation, people have stronger relationships on campus. My hope is that people will situate themselves in this as members of the community and be willing to learn from each other.”

Three of the talks this semester will be followed by community dinners where students, faculty, staff and local residents who attended the lecture can discuss it over a meal. At the start of each dinner, guests will be invited to write down a question or idea in response to the speaker. The notes will then be mixed up and anonymously read aloud to spur conversation.

Director of Institutional Inclusion and Diversity Programs Katy Stern will guide these discussions. She echoed Douglas’s optimism that they can provide a unique civil forum to share political views.

“The hope is to create a space where people can come and talk together, and they may not agree, but … learn from each other,” Stern said. “It doesn’t mean that if you have a different view you’re going to change your mind, but it might help you see something a different way, even if you disagree.”

Concerns over the polarization of Americans based on their political views have grown in recent years. Stern expressed a pressing societal need for programs like the Viewpoint Exchange that can inspire conversations and foster connections across differences.

“I think we are becoming more polarized as a country, and therefore on our campus too,” Stern said. “How do we talk to each other? It doesn’t mean we have to agree, and it doesn’t mean we have to win the debate, but how can we talk in a way that brings curiosity and respect, and that includes respect for ourselves, too?”

The Viewpoint Exchange program follows a similar speaker and dinner series last year about the American political and informational climate ahead of the 2024 presidential election, which included talks about American history, misinformation and polarization. Stern noted that Viewpoint Exchange is essentially a continuation of the earlier series.

“It’s going to be very similar,” Stern said. “The idea is to bring in speakers from a variety of different views on different issues, and then create the space for people to connect … [and] keep it growing.”

In agreement with Stern, Douglas called Viewpoint Exchange “season two” of last year’s speaker series, however, he noted that the events of the encampment did influence the issues highlighted in Viewpoint Exchange.

“I think there was a desire for us, institutionally, to think about how to increase conversation on campus,” Douglas said. “And in the ‘Working Together’ framework, it’s important to bring certain types of speakers who can talk about specific topics that multiple people in our community have shared would be important to hear about.”