JusTalks kicks off this Friday: January 18, 2013!
Join us this Friday night for our kick-off keynote address at 7pm in McCullough Social Space, open to the public. Participants will join us afterwards to meet and debrief with their family groups then start the full-day of JusTalks on Saturday morning in Atwater. Thank you all! We are looking forward to it. Join our facebook page for more information! 
JusTalks Moves forward for January 2013!
This coming J-Term will mark the launch of the first ever JusTalks. Programming and logistics are being planned during the summer and fall semester by the team of 20+ students. JusTalks 2013 will have 250 participants, a keynote speaker, and a week of events prior to the programming open to the campus and community. Check back for more details and news in the coming weeks!
The Campus Staff endorses JusTalks in the January 19th 2012 issue! Visit the site!
Over winter break, in a concerted effort to increase the diversity of this campus, the administration announced the addition of a new class of Posse Scholars from Chicago. We are delighted to welcome them into the Class of 2016 and applaud President of the College Ronald D. Liebowitz and the College’s decision. But though we lend our full-throated support to the administration for its ongoing commitment to making Middlebury a more diverse community, bringing in these new perspectives is simply not enough. In fact, in isolation, it may prove to be an entirely unfair act.
If Middlebury wants to continue to brand itself as a diverse institution — attracting students of all backgrounds under those pretenses — it must also provide this incoming student body with a forum for open dialogue and discourse. Diversity of background and of perspective does little unless we engage with it.
This theme was also present in our last editorial before break, which addressed accusations of institutional racism at the College (“Race and Gossip,” Dec. 8). Then, we voiced the need for this type of free conversation and put out a call to the student body to consider the most appropriate forum through which to do so. It turns out that JusTalks, a student initiative already in the process of gaining support across campus, has just the answer we were looking for.
The group calls for “an increase in campus confrontational dialogue, discourse, and leadership training because we believe such student engagement would enrich Middlebury’s education, and demonstrate its commitment to developing true global citizens.” They imagine JusTalks as “a forum dedicated to free communication, to thoughtful discourse, to supportive self-analysis, to leaning into discomfort, and to dynamic community building.”
Though much of the actual logistics are unspecified, what JusTalks envisions is that this time next year, first-years, as an extension of orientation, will be taking advantage of the free hours Winter Term gifts us to do exactly what its name suggests: talk. And to do so before friend groups and “Middlebury selves” have begun to solidify. They hope to foster a series of conversations about identity — think race, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender, faith … — and privilege that compel the students to simply consider why it is they think the things that they do. The program is not asking anyone to change. You are not required to share, and if your personal beliefs are reaffirmed, that is entirely your right. The goal is to offer a forum where there is no hierarchy of perspective — one that ideally includes students, faculty and staff, and catalyzes future debate or introspection.
The reality is that the constant business of Middlebury is not conducive to deeper, sometimes uncomfortable, conversations. We are not likely to initiate a back and forth about identity over lunch when class starts in 35 minutes and that research paper is weighing on your mind. And when meals are our only free time all day to catch up with friends, we are unlikely to engage a stranger. But these conversations are the way in which understanding and real empathy come about. And sometimes it only takes one story to remind us that these people with whom we live for four years have the potential to do more for our “global citizenship” than any academic text.
So even though some of us may cringe at the idea of any kind of mandatory College activity — especially one that encourages sharing our personal stories — a couple of isolated hours is a very small price to pay for even the possibility that you may come to understand yourself and your community just a little more fully. Surely there are few upperclassmen, who, looking back, would not have appreciated the chance to stumble unto an important belief or part of themselves that could have helped guide their decisions and interactions here so early on.
And we at the Campus feel that it is a small sacrifice to make for the power of the message that it sends. By mandating these conversations, the College would be making an important statement about its values as an institution. In coming to Middlebury, we have entered into a social contract with the school and its values — one that requires us to respect not only physical property, but also our fellow student, faculty and staff members. These conversations, if nothing else, would help us hold up our half of the bargain.
The rest of JusTalks is still undecided, and the team of 20 or so students working on this initiative hope to keep it that way for a little while longer. Because the goal is to create a forum that feels inclusive for every first-year, the JusTalks team has been going around talking to and asking for endorsements from all of the student organizations, publications, social houses and sports teams that are willing to take the time. Many of you may have already heard their pitch. But for those of you who have not, we urge you to listen carefully, and in the spirit of what is trying to be achieved here, really talk about it. Whatever you decide, personally or as a group, we know that JusTalks would love to hear about it.