Are you concerned with inter-group conflict at your school? Does tension separate racial, ethnic, religious, or other peer groups on your campus? Are you looking to change your school’s climate and improve strained student relationships?
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, called 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
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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
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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.
This website introduces you to the array of resources that SDCN has prepared to make the difficult task of initiating an SD program as straightforward and rewarding as possible. Specifically, this website introduces the fundamentals of Sustained Dialogue, the steps required to initiate a Sustained dialogue program on your campus, and SDCN’s capacity to assist your initiative.
How do students begin to initiate SD on their campus?
Familiarize yourself with Sustained Dialogue. We encourage you to read further about SD on our website so as to get a better idea of SDCN’s work on campuses. If you’re interested in the program, feel free to
email or call us. Introducing us to the issues students face on your campus and discussing why SD intrigues you will help us work with you on planning next steps.
Request Resources from SDCN. SDCN can send you a copy of our promotional video and other written resources, including ones which detail what you can expect of a potential relationship with SDCN. These are meant to help you spread the word about SD …
Establish allies. Initiating SD will prove infinitely easier and more rewarding with the help of others. We will ask you to develop a small, diverse team of students on your campus that are interested in establishing an SD program. This team will be required to work collectively on a proposal to initiate an SD program. If SDCN and your school decide to launch an SD initiative together, a coalition of student initiators will prove necessary. Identifying an adviser and establishing relationships with faculty members and administrators are also important aspects of the initiation process.
Develop and submit your SDCN Application to Initiate an SD Fellowship Program. After you have assembled a group excited about submitting a proposal to SDCN, we will send you the application materials. Thorough initiation of SD requires a significant amount of homework prior to launching the initiative. For this reason, the proposal will cause your team to examine and explore the need for, potential impact of, and steps necessary to develop and manage SD on your campus. SDCN is unfortunately unable to commence work with all of the schools from which it receives inquiries. Accordingly, your proposal will also help us determine whether or not we’ll be able to work together on launching SD at your campus. Along with completing this application, we ask you to read through the SDCN Services and Campus Commitments document. This will give you a better sense of the services SDCN delivers and what is expected of campuses we work with, including expenses associated with initiating and maintaining an SD program.
Decision to Launch a Program. If the parties mutually agree to move ahead with SD on your campus, we will schedule a series of conference calls or an in person training session to help you plan your dialogue initiative. Specifically, we will work together to plan recruiting SD moderators and participants, holding a Moderator/Initiator Workshop, forming dialogue groups, and setting up a leadership team to manage your initiative.
What you can expect from SDCN
- SD literature, available upon request
- Conference calls to plan for recruiting participants, recruiting moderators, and establishing an appropriate leadership structure to manage running SD on your campus
- Upon committing to initiating a
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program, SDCN Program Directors with work with you to plan a 2-day Moderator/Initiator Workshop
- Moderator and Leadership Manuals for student leaders of the initiative
- 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 together annually for a weekend of workshops, dialogue sessions, and activities that build and strengthen our network and each individual campus program
