Community Dialogue Meeting Addresses Identity-Based Bias, Race and Accountability
Jason Craige Harris speaking during the campus dialogue session on Thursday, Nov. 21. (Vincent DiFonzo/The Gettysburgian)
By Vincent DiFonzo, Editor-in-Chief
On Thursday, Gettysburg College hosted a campus dialogue session. The hour-and-a-half session, held in the College Union Ballroom, was facilitated by Jason Craige Harris of the Perception Institute and addressed issues of “race, identity, accountability, and repair.”
The session was held in conjunction with Conversations for Change. The afternoon’s athletics schedule was cleared to encourage student-athletes to attend.
The session opened with remarks from President Bob Iuliano, thanking community members for their work in response to the racist incident in which a racial slur was cut onto a student in September. He also thanked all who made schedule changes to accommodate for the dialogue session.
“To the faculty, the coaches, the program directors and the others who adopted and changed schedules again to make it possible for our students to join us here today, who otherwise would have had conflicts of commitment, again, thank you to those of you,” said Iuliano.
Next, Iuliano reflected on why he believed the dialogue session was important.
“It is, of course, at least in part, a result of the deeply upsetting racial event that occurred during the fall and that generated such substantial national attention. But it’s not just about that event. It’s at least equally about the transcendent responsibility each and every one of us has to create a more inclusive campus,” Iuliano remarked.
He also acknowledged changes being made to the College’s Bias Response Protocol. The College has been working with a number of student organizations, including the Black Student Union and African Student Association, to guide changes.
“Members of the community have also expressed concern about how we, the College, responds to these incidents on campus — when we communicate what we communicate, the substantive actions we take,” said Iuliano. “Many of you express precisely this set of concerns after the incident in the fall, but here’s my simple point, the College owes to each one of you and each one of us goes to each other a commitment to make this a place where no one need questions whether they belong, whether because of their race, gender, religion, politics, sexuality or other forms of identity.”
Last week, Iuliano highlighted changes made so far in a campus-wide email.
“Real change happens because the entire community is engaged and recognizes the responsibility we have to one another. The starting point is our willingness to talk openly about topics like race, which we will do today, topics that are often hard, and topics that we will often seek to avoid,” said Iuliano.
Next, he introduced Board of Trustees Chair Lauren Wise Bright ’90. In addition to her work at Gettysburg, she works as Chief Legal Officer at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Iuliano noted that Bright is the first person of color to lead the Board.
“I’m here with you today because the Gettysburg College Board of Trustees is committed to this institution and the advancement of our mission, both academically and culturally,” said Bright. She spoke on the progress she has observed at Gettysburg since she first began as a student in 1986.
“We’re here because we each play a role in making sure that Gettysburg College keeps moving forward. That is what this session is all about,” said Bright.
Chief Diversity Office Eloísa Gordon-Mora spoke next.
“I come into this work with the belief that people build stronger bonds and become better citizens and human beings when they treat each other inclusively,” said Gordon-Mora. “However, I also come into the work with the awareness that higher education was not originally conceived or intended for all sectors of society in terms of race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, sexuality, social class, religion, ability and more.”
She reaffirmed diversity and inclusion as “fundamental” to the College. However, she recognized there is much work to be done, especially in the wake of September’s racist incident.
Last year, Gordon-Mora worked with community members to “develop our current bias education and response protocol,” which resulted in the College publicly reporting documented events on their website. Since the incident in September, the College took feedback from student groups on how this can be improved.
“After a series of meetings with student leaders in October, including BSU, GASA, international students, athletes and others, we agreed to inform on specific bias events that reach a level of impact that transcends the interactions between two individuals or parties,” said Gordon-Mora. “With this, we are expanding the use of the bias protocol to inform the community on totaling bias events similar to the way sexual assaults are reported.”
Vice President for College Life Anne Ehrlich then took the podium, sharing what College Life has done in response to the September racist incident. She highlighted the College updating bias incidents on their website, regular updates on “program, policy and practice developments” from the College, and a bias awareness and education campaign, including at first-year student orientation and for faculty and staff.
Additionally, she shared that Campus Safety is conducting one-on-one meetings with students “to determine how to make their policies and practice more inclusive.” Students interested in meeting with Campus Safety were encouraged to contact Executive Director Alex Wiltz.
Provost Jamila Bookwala spoke next, highlighting initiatives by the Provost’s Office.
“I’m here to really convey to you a very, very deep commitment in our office to make sure that we have a classroom environment and a campus environment, a department and program environment that is inclusive and that fosters a sense of belonging among all of us, and we are ready in our office to work with our faculty and our staff and our students,” said Bookwala.
First, she thanked faculty, especially the political science department, for working to facilitate “evidence-based” conversations addressing bias issues.
Bookwala shared that her office is working to make Gettysburg’s curriculum more inclusive.
On Tuesday, Dec. 3, two faculty members, Nathifa Green of philosophy and Alecea Standlee of sociology and women, gender and sexuality studies will speak on inclusive curricula in the Pennsylvania Hall Lyceum. Bookwala extended an invitation to students and faculty to attend this meeting.
On Wednesday, Jan. 15, there will be a “faculty institute” facilitated by Jason Craige Harris where faculty will “talk about issues of inclusionary [in the] long game.” This is planned to become an annual meeting held every January.
The Provost’s Office will prioritize hiring faculty with “expertise and the experience to contribute to the race, power, equity element of our new curriculum” while hiring tenure-track faculty for the 2026-27 academic year.
Next, Gordon-Mora introduced Jason Craige Harris, describing him as a “researcher, storyteller and facilitator at the Perception Institute, which helps organizations around the country to reach their goal of dignity, equity and bond.”
Jason Craige Harris took the microphone and the dialogue session began. The dialogue’s venue, the Ballroom, was set up so that community members were sitting in groups of five to six to create small-group dialogue.
“Today, we’re diving into a courageous conversation. Are you all into that?” said Harris, opening the session.
He introduced the dialogue’s topic: “Today, I want to talk with you all, and I want you to talk with each other a little bit more about this topic of community and belonging that I have devoted my entire life to, and I hope to explain a little bit about why and how.”
Harris spoke on what it means to “belong,” and the idea of “othering,” which he described as “making certain people out to be those who are outside of the bounds of our communities of concern.”
Preparing to begin small-group dialogue, Harris encouraged attendees not to worry if they were not sure what to say. Instead, he said, “Just sit with empathy.”
He asked attendees to “listen to learn, not to respond.” Elaborating on this, he explained, “What I mean by that is so often it’s the case that we call a friend and we say, ‘friend, I got something to share with you.’ We start to share our story only to have our friend interrupt us and tell us ‘if you think that’s so bad, well, guess what happened to me?’”
He also asked attendees not to share any private stories disclosed to them by people in their small-group outside of that group for privacy reasons.
After telling his own personal story related to community and belonging, Harris posed a question for small-group discussion: “What does community and belonging mean to you? What have you experienced or witnessed that helped you arrive at these ideas?”
After about five minutes of small-group discussion, Harris asked if anybody wanted to share their stories or thoughts with the entire group.
After a few students spoke, Harris said, “A big takeaway for me is this idea that none of us gets through life alone. Y’all with me on that? None of us get through life alone.”
In the next segment, Harris spoke on “race, rupture and resilience,” reflecting on how “communities get diminished and harmed all the time.” He addressed “in-group” and “out-group” dynamics which he said can lead to exclusion.
“Every human society has in-groups — people who belong,” reflected Harris.
Harris posed another question for small-group discussion: “What is one thing that you’ve witnessed or experienced that has shaped how you understand race and racism in the United States?”
After a few minutes of small-group discussion, the floor was opened for students to share their experiences with the wider group. After multiple students spoke on their experiences, Harris invited students to “think about one thing that we can do differently.” He also invited attendees to continue these conversations outside the dialogue session.
Additionally, he shared that there will be another dialogue session held in January or February 2025. Concluding the session, attendees were encouraged to fill out a survey to give feedback on the dialogue session.
Following the session, Iuliano sent a campus-wide email, thanking attendees for their “engagement, courage, and commitment to working together to build a stronger, more inclusive environment.”
“Yesterday’s discussion was a significant step forward in expanding our collective understanding and fostering empathy by encouraging us to see the world through the eyes of one another,” wrote Iuliano. “This important work is far from over, and I am deeply committed to continuing this journey with all of you. Together, we will take the steps needed to create positive change.”
