Common Ground Corner

Rapid Response discussions launched

The Office of Common Ground is looking for creative and meaningful ways that the campus community can discuss issues of difference and connect them to challenges and opportunities on campus.

The recent events in Jena, La., provided an important opportunity. In September, the small town was inundated with thousands of people from all over the country who came to protest the arrest of six black teenagers stemming from a series of racially charged confrontations among high school students.

Within a few days of the protest, Common Ground announced its first Rapid Response discussion forum. “As issues come up, we hope to pull together quickly and have community discussions,” including asking “How does this affect us here?” said Glyn Hughes, director of Common Ground. 

Rapid Response will address “high profile, current events—things that are on people’s minds, issues that demand reflection,” says Hughes.

Hughes was pleased that the first Rapid Response drew staff, faculty and students. “There was good racial diversity in the room, too, and a few international students. It was what we were hoping for.”

One of those attending was Daniel Harawa, ’09. The discussion was important to him in a variety of ways. “It first and foremost allowed me to voice my frustration with the injustice which has occurred, and hear the frustration echoed around the room. It created an environment where I could express how I felt, and hear how others felt. This was especially important to me, because it made me realize that although I see the situation one way, others may see it differently, and it is up to me to be an educated scholar and listen to try and understand opinions which differ from mine. I think Rapid Response discussions are needed in instances like this, because it’s an outlet for emotions, which, if they go unheard, might lead to further incidents that could have easily been avoided if there were just people to listen.”

Iria Jones, operations manager at Boatwright Memorial Library, said the first Rapid Response was “a good beginning to start discussions that need to happen no matter how uncomfortable they may be. I gained not only information I was unaware of, but also a sense of perspective from other individuals that I had not thought about.”

In addition to Rapid Response, Common Ground will continue other forums, such as the Boatwright Library discussion series, which began last year. Common Ground also is pulling together student groups that deal with issues of diversity for a series of strategic discussions.

Common Ground blog

The Office of Common Ground has established an online discussion blog for faculty, staff and students to interact around difficult questions relating to diversity. The blog will work this way: “Once every few weeks, the Office of Common Ground will post a brief but provocative prompt on the site and invite members of the UR community to discuss it with one another on the site. We’ll then moderate the site to ensure that the discussions reflect the spirit of inclusion, but other than that, it will be an open forum,” said Hughes. “We hope this will be yet another starting point for meaningful, community-wide dialogue.”

He said the blog would allow people “who normally do not have an opportunity to interact with each other to actually do so around important issues.”

To read the questions and responses, visit urcommonground.typepad.com.