The Undiscussed, a newly formed, student-led organization seeking to promote discussion among students about issues of multiculturalism and identity, recently unveiled its plans to tackle these issues at the College.
Alyssa Chen '08, who is spearheading the project, said the organization will utilize dialogue circles?which she first heard about in her education class last year?to confront these issues. Dialogue circles, Chen said, will enable students to discuss their experiences with identity in a safe, structured arena.
The organization, which runs for five weeks (with a 90-minute session each week) divides participants into groups of eight to 12 students for discussion.
Each dialogue circle will be led by one of 20 student facilitators. Chen said she looked for dynamic and diverse leaders to head the discussions. The facilitators were also put through a four to five hour training session, she said.
Chen said she wanted the circles to give students a forum in which to discuss issues that are otherwise glossed over.
"I wanted to bring [The Undiscussed] to Bowdoin as a way to discuss contentious issues," she said. "I wanted to bring in race. It's something that people always talk about when incidents come up, but it disappears before any sustained or useful dialogue takes place."
In an e-mail to the Orient, Dudney Sylla '08 said that Bowdoin students have little space to candidly examine issues of race and identity.
"What I think has been missing is a space where students can, over a lengthy period of time, sit down with a variety of students and talk honestly about how identity affects the way in which they are perceived by others and the way in which they perceive others and themselves," he said.
When framing the discussion topics for the dialogue circles, Chen said she worked hard to keep the subject matter limited.
"A lot of times when you open it up to everything, it becomes less focused and less useful," she said. "The question might become how do we make Bowdoin better for everyone, but we can't pretend that everyone is in the same boat."
Facilitators will open the first two discussion sessions to any topic of discussion, and will then narrow in on a specific issue to dissect in the circles, Chen said.
Wil Smith, associate dean of multicultural student affairs, has served as unofficial adviser for The Undiscussed. Smith said that his role is strictly advisory, and that the student leaders have the responsibility to shape the direction of the group.
"Early on in the process I organized a mock facilitative discussion on identity, diversity, and multiculturalism for the leaders," Smith said. "I am not trying to shape or impose where it should go; I have been looking at their proposals and providing them with funding to get started, but mostly in an advisory role."
Chen said she hopes the dialogue circles do not alienate or accuse certain groups, but instead allow students to examine life at Bowdoin through an alternative lens.
"People get so caught up in things that they don't step back and examine how other people are experiencing Bowdoin," she said.
Sylla added that students rarely have the opportunity to discuss these issues in-depth with people they are unfamiliar with.
"In public arenas, students resort to political correctness or give up the floor to experts such as guest speakers or professors," Sylla told the Orient. "Students themselves do not engage enough with those different from them about these issues."
The Undiscussed will host a kickoff event February 1 at 7 p.m. in Morrell Lounge in Smith Union. Mica Pollock, professor of education at Harvard University, will give a lecture entitled, 'We Should Talk, But What About?' A Discussion on the Dilemmas of Race Talk." Chen said she hopes the event will generate interest in the dialogue circles; she hopes at least 50 students sign up for one of the circles' ten time slots. The deadline for participating in a dialogue circle is February 17.