Listening Impact Circles, the first initiative of the Presidential Advisory Group for Community and Dialogue (PAGCD) established last fall by President Tom Stritikus, begin Feb. 12.
Interim Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students Vivian Garay Santiago said these sessions were proposed to help develop spaces for dialogue and exchange of ideas and will be facilitated by external experts from Emerging Leadership Consultants (ELC), a third-party company that helps organizations create supportive working environments.
“[The goal is] learning how to really listen and talk to one another […] with empathy, and to see the humanity in one another. I think [we want] all of those things [to] kind of permeate,” Santiago said. “I think we are so much in our echo chambers that we’re not accustomed to listening to people. We hear people yelling at each other. We see a lot of this, but I think we are less practiced at really, deeply listening to one another.”
The PAGCD includes faculty, staff and student representatives and is one of the components of Occidental College’s Plan for Building Community and Promoting Dialogue — a proposal that aims to foster a safe environment for constructive discourse between members of the community. It was formed in response to rising tensions on campus from the Israel-Palestine conflict with the concept of restorative practices in mind. The group is co-led by Santiago and Interim Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean of the College Catherine Leonard.
According to Santiago, the first Listening Impact Circle will feature three different sessions: session one with only faculty and staff, session two with a mixed group of students, faculty and staff and session three with only students.
Santiago said she recognizes that there are still unresolved tensions between students, as well as between students and staff, and that many are sensitive to the topics the Listening Impact Circles will address. Santiago said several students have told her it feels like there is a delicate layer of ice that has not yet been broken.
Santiago also said she recognizes many other programs on campus already hold space for similar types of dialogue but might not center restorative justice in the way the listening circles intend to.
Claire Kosek (senior), a student representative on the PAGCD, said that because Listening Impact Circles offer this restorative practice approach to dialogue, it might encourage students to engage in difficult conversations that they were not comfortable participating in before.
“The best way that our campus can facilitate change on the institutional level is to fund and design programming that allows students to have open dialogue,” Kosek said. “The idea of a listening session is not a novel contribution to campus but rather seeks to bridge the barriers that exist in terms of labor and cost.”
Tobias Lodish (sophomore), a student representative on the PAGCD and a member of Occidental Jewish Voice for Peace (Oxy JVP), said that although he agrees that there is not adequate dialogue among students who hold different opinions — especially on the topic of the Israel-Palestine conflict — it is due to lack of education around the topic and not because of a lack of space to talk about it.
“I don’t think anything bad will come from having these types of conversations,” Lodish said. “I just think […] it may be a misuse of limited time and resources that we have.”
Santiago said the committee seems to see great promise in the Listening Impact Circles and the PAGCD, even though the work is far from over.
“I’m optimistic,” Santiago said. “I’m hopeful that this could be a path forward for us, but it’s up to us collectively.”
Contact Felix Yi at fyi@oxy.edu
