Though most Bowdoin students make an effort to get to know one another, some community members took the extra step this Tuesday evening, sitting down to dinner with six members of the Bowdoin community who were virtual strangers.
Since February 2004, the Office of Residential Life has sponsored the Dinner with Six Strangers program, which brings students, faculty, and staff members together for dinner in College houses once a semester. The dinners aim to give members of the Bowdoin community the opportunity to interact with people they may not otherwise get to know.
Tuesday's dinner was the first to incorporate focused discussion questions into the dinner. Ostermann worked with Director of the Community Service Resource Center Susie Dorn to formulate discussion questions.
"This dinner is the first one that has a theme," Ostermann said. "We're working with community service in anticipation for the Center for the Common Good, which opens this fall. It's to get the community feedback on thoughts on what is the Common Good."
Tuesday's discussion questions asked participants, "What does the College's commitment to the Common Good mean to you?", "How would you say it translates into the life of the College?", "Where do we fall short?", and "How does an interest in the Common Good relate to what we do outside the College or after college?"
Professor of Economics John Fitzgerald, who has attended previous Dinner with Six Strangers events, said that he enjoys getting to know students outside of his discipline's majors at the dinners in an informal setting.
For Tuesday's Dinner with Six Strangers event, Fitzgerald said he was asked to help facilitate and focus discussion pertaining to the Common Good.
"For this dinner I was asked to help make sure that the discussion questions were covered," he said. "In general I probably ask more questions which is a way to move the conversation along."
Ostermann said she hopes to frame discussions around specific topics at future Dinner with Six Strangers programs after Tuesday's success.
"It's a really neat idea to think about using Dinner with Six Strangers as a casual forum, not with an agenda, but a place to meet new people and have something to talk about," she said.
The Office of Residential Life sponsors the program, which receives funding from the Kurtz Fund.
"It used to be sponsored by the Mellon fund, but starting this school year, it is starting with the Kurtz fund," Ostermann said. "The funds give money earmarked for the use of bringing faculty, students, and staff members together in non-traditional settings."
Katie Wells '08 attended her second Dinner with Six Strangers on Tuesday night. Wells said she used the dinners as an opportunity to not only interact with her peers, but with faculty and staff members as well.
"I RSVP'd again because despite Bowdoin's small size, no one can truly say they know everyone," she said. "I enjoy how the gathering is a varied assortment of not only students but faculty, staff, and coaches."
The beauty of the program lies in its ability to bring together members of the community who would not otherwise interact, Ostermann said.
"Each table has its own personality and chemistry," she said. "We have people from the Treasurer's Office, from the Development Office, from the academic departments, from housekeeping and security?it does a really good job at capturing everyone."
Ostermann, who graduated from Bowdoin in 2006, said that she attended every Dinner with Six Strangers when she was a student.
"I've been to every single one since it started except for the semester that I was abroad," she said. "I loved it? it's an opportunity to sit down with people you don't know."
Within their first year of college, students form friend groups that they rarely deviate from, Wells said.
"After four years here, it seems we casually slip into the same routine for meals," she said. "We tend to sit with the same people and this dinner allows you to sit face-to-face with folks who are peers?but unfamiliar peers."
Wells said the dinners allow students to discuss relevant issues without the pressures of a classroom setting.
"I enjoy how the dialogue is meaningful amid a casual setting," she said. "The dinner is meant to be a dinner and not a committee meeting."
Some students are particularly dedicated to the program.
"I have some Dinner with Six Strangers junkies who never miss a dinner," Ostermann said. "At the beginning I sometimes ask people how many people are sitting at a table with all strangers."