Interested Administrators

As an administrator you may be concerned with inter-group conflict at your school. Does tension  separate racial, ethnic, religious, or other peer groups on your campus? Does your school struggle to retain minority students? Do divided communities affect student’s academic development? 

 
In 1999, students began using a unique process called Sustained Dialogue (SD) to proactively improve race relations on college campuses. A network of Sustained Dialogue practitioners has since formed, connecting students at 15 colleges, universities, and high schools. This network, calle the Sustained Dialogue Campus Network (SDCN), represents a budding social movement of passionate students deeply engaged in changing the dynamics of their communities. 
 
SDCN empowers students with tools to change their communities and enables them to take ownership of the challenging task of improving strained relationships. Through continuous facilitated dialogue between diverse community members, students are able to build stronger and more inclusive campus communities. SD student leaders have the knowledge to create a safe space for campus community members to engage in difficult dialogue so that they can contribute to and change an increasingly diverse global community.  
 
 
 

What impact can Sustained Dialogue have on your campus?

 

  • SD broadens individual perspectives

 

 

  • SD helps students build relationships across community divides

  • SD equips students with communication skills necessary in increasingly diverse school communities

  • SD cultivates team dynamics that can lead to greater change

  • SD encourages students to address community problems through civic engagement

  • SD encourages students to learn from one another 
     
    

What you and your students can expect from SDCN: 

 

- SD literature, available upon request, introduces our unique, community building process


 

- Upon committing to initiating a program, experienced SDCN moderators conduct 2-day Moderator Trainings

 

 

- SDCN provides continual guidance and support, as students work to build and maintain their SD program.

- SDCN’s National intercollegiate Conference assembles SD student practitioners and alumni annually for a weekend of workshops, dialogue sessions, and activities that build and strengthen our network and each individual campus program.

 

  

 

 

 

Administrator's Role

Step 1: Once you have familiarized yourself with SD and SDCN and are interested in helping students start an SD program, contact SDCN so we an begin to help you strategically plan the process. 

  Step 2: Identify appropriate students to form an initiating team.  This team will have to complete the SDCN Application to Initiate an SD Fellowship Program. Your team should be young (time to grow with the program), passionate about the issue affecting the campus, committed (SD will be a lot of responsibility), charismatic, personabsle, well-spoken, well connected to the campus, and responsible. SDCN can help you develop a strategic profile.
Step 3: Facilitate a conversation between initiating team and SDCN. Introduce the initiating team to SDCN so that they can learn what SD is, the rewards and challenges of building an SD program, and the process for doing so.
 
Step 4: Support initiating team. Introduce students to campus resources available to aid their efforts. Present SD program to relevant students, faculty, administration, and staff to give early momentum to the program. Help the students find any information needed for their proposal to SDCN.
 
Step 5: Discover your role as a supporter, not a leader. SD must be a student led initiative. Students will be best at adapting the SD model to their campus culture. Step in only to support the students with encouragement and advice; be a mentor.
 
Step 6: If you begin working with SDCN on initiating a program, step back and let the students run the program. Allow the program to develop into an organization, and enjoy watching students grow into leaders, develop skills, and learn to engage, challenge, and change their community. 

 
Morgan Mirth
Moderator
School: Dickinson
Year: 2007
Major: Neuroscience, with a Pre-Health focus
"Sustained Dialogue has challenged me to step out of the boundaries set by my own surface assumptions about other people. I have become comfortable talking about issues of race, gender, religion, and the relationships that are encompassed by these issues. Without Sustained Dialogue it would have taken me many more years to arrive where I am today. It has been an amazing experience, and has only fueled my determination in creating an environment where issues can be discussed at the dinner table rather than swept under the rug."


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