Talking Stick - September/October 2016 - 33

color and inflaming racial and ethnic
tensions in the classroom. Many
students worry about being deported."
The authors cited K-12 educators'
anecdotes of bullying, harassment, and
intimidation of minority students by
their emboldened peers. If you have
not been paying attention to the 2016
American presidential elections, now is
the time to give some thought to how
this presidential season may impact
your campus housing program and
to consider adopting a few strategies
provided here.
Housing professionals strive
to provide a safe, welcoming, and
inclusive residential experience for
students as well as faculty and staff.
At their best, residence halls are
communities where students learn
to live cooperatively with others,
to interact respectfully with people
different from themselves, to resolve
conflicts peacefully, and to find their
own voices. The most inclusive and
welcoming residential environments
are the result of intentional educational
initiatives, expert facilitation, and
relentless caretaking. As residents
express themselves with posters in
support of their candidates and don
buttons and T-shirts, how might a
campus's bucolic residential setting
change? Will political messages chalked
onto sidewalks near a residence hall - a
hot-button issue on many campuses
last spring - raise fears of students or
their parents? Will students who repeat
micro-aggressive statements made by
presidential candidates find themselves
ostracized from their room, suite,
floor, or residence hall? How might
housing leaders prepare student and
professional staff to keep issues such as
these from disrupting a positive sense
of community?
Consider this example from
the 2015-16 academic year. Frankie
Minor, director of residence life at
the University of Missouri-Columbia,
reflected on the lessons learned after

student demonstrations thrust their
campus into the national spotlight.
Their biggest challenges fell into three
buckets: leadership, communication,
and community. Within days of
the onset of student activism, "We
realized our professional staff weren't
comfortable with their skills in
fostering constructive dialogue when
there are strong differences of opinion."
Student engagement in Mizzou's
residence halls waned as emotions ran
high and alarming rumors were posted
to social media. There was no time
to practice or develop dialogue skills.
Minor says that looking ahead to fall
2016, they will make effective dialogue
skills a required component of student
and professional staff training. They are
already exploring the use of a variety
of campus experts, including Mizzou's
Center for the Study of Dispute
Resolution.
Kathy Obear, educator and author
of Turn the Tide, encourages educators
to move beyond civility. In an interview
with the authors, she explains that
"Civility is seen as being nice and polite,
which is not what this is about. For
me, it is about how we can engage with
passion and authenticity in ways that
we can hear each other, be understood,
and not be offensive. That's different
than nice and polite." She encourages
educators to think of "civility as a tool,
like political correctness, that can
be used to squelch honest dialogue
especially about micro-aggressions and
other offensive dynamics. It's using
the tools that have been used to keep
oppression going." Like Minor, Obear
recognizes that teaching students to
have productive, authentic dialogue is
not a task for novices. She recommends
engaging with established resources
such as Intergroup Dialogue or the
Sustained Dialogue Campus Network.
The value of investing in highly
regarded dialogue organizations is
shared by housing professionals as
well. Lerone Joseph, an area director

Five Tips for Making
the Most of the
Presidential Election
Season
1. Review and educate
residents and staff about
campus and/or residential
policies related to restriction
of time, place, and manner
of speech and free
expression.
2. Invite faculty, such as
political science or history
professors, to facilitate
discussions with students
about the presidential
candidate debates or the
election process.
3. Invite faculty to host
teach-ins which engage
critical thinking skills on
a variety of hot topics
introduced by the
candidates.
4. Have faculty and staff
host watch parties in the
residence halls during
presidential candidate
debates, on election night,
or on inauguration day.
5. Expect faculty and staff
living in the residence
halls to encourage and
model respectful discussion
and host engagement
opportunities in which
participants learn the
perspectives of others.

SEPTEMBER + OCTOBER 2016

33
Talking Stick - September/October 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Talking Stick - September/October 2016
