I've Been Thinking

I’ve been thinking…

…about starting a blog for some time now.  As dean of students I am privileged to have a somewhat unique perspective on student life at Colby and I often think that a broader, and more visible airing of some of the issues and ideas that land on my desk and/or occupy my psyche might prove to be interesting – or at least entertaining. It also has the added benefit of providing a forum for some give and take which is always worthwhile. 

At any rate, I’m going to give it a go. So for those of you who are inclined to peruse the Colby website, and monitor the various blogs that exist, for at least the near term, you can expect somewhat regular posts from me on any number of issues that are of significance to Colby students. I can’t be certain what direction some of my cyber-essays will take, nor can I say exactly how this little corner of e-Colby will contribute to some larger understanding any of us have of the College, the community, or the cosmos, but hopefully it will provide some useful or provocative insights into what’s happening on Mayflower Hill.

So here goes…

I have been struck this fall by the tenor of the conversation on campus around some issues of real importance. Specifically, I’ve been thinking about the ways in which Colby students are talking about dangerous drinking and about race, privilege, and cultural insensitivity.  Neither of these issues, or concerns about them are in any way new at Colby. But the sound of the discourse around them this fall is different. There is more polyphonic dialogue and less atonal monologue. It may not be particularly harmonious at times, but it does seem to be working in that direction.  And that’s something.

Regular readers of the Echo (the student newspaper) and the Digest of Civil Discourse (sort of an online chat room for students to discuss a wide range of issues) know what I’m talking about. Over the past three weeks the Echo has run a series of well-researched and well-written articles covering the drinking issue from a variety of perspectives.  During that same time period there has been an evolving, threaded discussion on the Digest about cultural and racial insensitivity and white privilege and how these issues play themselves out at Colby and beyond. 

As the year progresses it’s likely that I will revisit these themes more than once in this space. There is certainly no shortage of material to be explored under the headings of drinking and diversity.  But for this installment, I want to focus on the discussions themselves rather than the specific content. On college campuses in general, and certainly Colby is no exception, we talk a lot about the “free and open exchange of ideas.” We champion openness and discourse and urge students to “step outside of their comfort zones.” But the truth is, often when moments arise where hard conversation is most needed we don’t always live up to the ideals to which we aspire.  A rush to judgment and an urgency to assess blame and to punish can chill real dialogue.  Anger and defensiveness don’t usually produce the kind of frank and courageous sharing of ideas that is required to effect real change.

But my sense is that the conversations on campus this fall about drinking and about racial/cultural insensitivity have more often than not been precisely the sort of open and civil interactions with hard concepts that we want to encourage.  We may not have yet found the solutions to these problems but real, open and honest dialogue is an important step in the right direction.