SDCN Summit Celebrates 10 Years of SD
Friday, April 9, 2010(Sustained Dialogue Campus Network)
The Sustained Dialogue Campus Network (SDCN) celebrated 10 years of Sustained Dialogue on campuses at its 7th Annual National Summit at Princeton University March 26-28th.
The Summit was sponsored by Princeton’s Office of the Vice President for Campus Life, the Princeton Class of 1952, and the Princeton Sustained Dialogue student club. Over 150 students, administrators, and alumni from 12 campuses gathered for the event and shared best practices for building more cohesive, diverse, engaged campus communities through dialogue.
Founded by Princeton alumni David Tukey and Teddy Nemeroff in 1999, Sustained Dialogue (SD) brings students from different social identity groups together to build relationships and develop strategies to address campus divisions. The initiative uses conflict resolution methodology developed by retired Middle East diplomat Hal Saunders, who is best known for his involvement in the Middle East peace process in the 1970s, as well as for his role as a facilitator of citizen dialogues in Russia, Tajikistan, Armenia, and Iraq.
In 2003, the Sustained Dialogue Campus Network was formed as a project of Saunders’ International Institute for Sustained Dialogue to help SD spread to more campuses. Today, SDCN trains, mentors, and connects students on 14 campuses across the country. In September 2009, SDCN hired its first Executive Director Amy Lazarus to lead its 5-person staff. Lazarus says of the Summit, “It was inspiring to witness the students, administrators, and supporters building the movement to develop courageous leaders committed and able to engage differences. Part of the Power of SD lies in the alumni who carry the dedication and tools to their schools, workplaces, and communities.”
Attendees of the National Summit participated in workshops that introduced facilitation skills and strategies to move from dialogue to action, as well as practices to strengthen the management of individual campus dialogue programs. Student leaders and administrators also gathered to discuss how to work together to create more inclusive campuses.
Leaving the Summit, a University of Virginia student described, “I feel that my involvement is so much more profound than I had realized and that while forming personal relationships is a fulfilling aspect of dialogue, it is not the only reason or even the primary reason for dialogue. Learning about social action and the kinds of changes that dialogue can affect really inspired me to take my dialogues to a deeper level.”
Princeton University President Shirley Tilghman, who participated in Sustained Dialogue for two years, addressed Summit attendees and applauded their efforts to strengthen civil discourse on campuses. Tilghman described, “colleges are places intended… to stimulate capacity for civil discourse in our society and to allow students to discourse with individuals whose fundamental experiences are different from your own.” She noted that “issues centered around race in this country are still profoundly vexing,” and she praised the student leaders convened at the Summit for working “to be able to have the imagination, the creativity and also the experience” to, in the words of scholar Cornel West “‘imagine yourself in someone else’s skin.’”
Dr. Andrea Diaz, Associate Dean and Director of the Intercultural Center at Roger Williams University, presented her recently completed research on the impact of Sustained Dialogue participation on post-college civic life. Diaz’s research provides evidence that Sustained Dialogue participation produces a "restringing" effect, based on participants’ descriptions that they were changed or transformed in subtle, complex, and pervasive ways. In addition, the study confirmed recent research on the Intergroup Dialogue model, finding that participants reported increases in knowledge, interest, skills, and empathy related to intergroup relations. The study extended prior research by finding that these perceived dialogue impacts, as well as several others, lasted into the post-college workplace and also affected participants’ future hopes and plans.
In addition, over a dozen Princeton SD alumni gathered to reflect on their involvement in SD and its impact on Princeton's campus since its founding in 1999. Robin Stennet, a co-moderator of the first dialogue group on campus, said, “The Summit was a great opportunity to reflect on the impact SD had not only on my college experience but also the last ten years of my life. It was wonderful to share memories with old friends and advice with current students working to expand SD on today's campuses. SD became part of the way I think about solving conflicts and the weekend helped remind me of the significant role it has played in my life, work and interactions with others.”
Students, administrators, and alumni gathered for a banquet on Saturday evening of the Summit to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Sustained Dialogue at Princeton. Hal Saunders presented awards to SD co-founders Teddy Nemeroff and David Tukey, for the legacy of their commitment to strengthening community at Princeton. SDCN staff and students also honored Princeton’s Vice President for Campus Life, Janet Dickerson, who will retire in June after ten years at Princeton and 40 years as a university administrator. A long-time supporter of Sustained Dialogue, as well as a former dialogue participant, Dickerson described SD as critical to her work on campus.
Reginald Galloway, a junior and former president of Princeton’s SD club, described, “The Summit was highly successful because we had a lot of participants from different schools, and everyone learned about the potential impact SD could have. We all left the weekend empowered to continue the work on our respective campuses. Personally, I have participated in two prior SDCN Summits and this one was the best.”
About the Sustained Dialogue Campus Network
The Sustained Dialogue Campus Network (SDCN) trains, mentors, and connects student leaders who initiate and sustain dialogues to build cohesive, engaged, and diverse campus communities, thereby preparing the next generation of civic leaders. SDCN is an initiative of the International Institute for Sustained Dialogue, which is a 501(c)(3) organization, formed in collaboration with the Kettering Foundation, that promotes the process of Sustained Dialogue for transforming racial, ethnic, and other deep-rooted conflicts in the United States and abroad.
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