JusTalks Prompts Social Awareness

For the planners of JusTalks, an initiative to foster dialogue on issues of identity, Middlebury is a school with one element missing.

“We don’t talk enough about identity,” said Hudson Nicholas ’14 who is helping organize JusTalks.

This student-driven social intiative will begin on Jan. 18, 2013 with a keynote address followed by a day of large group activities and small discussion sessions. JusTalks was born from the concerns of a group of students, many of whom are memebers of Middlebury’s Social Justice Coalition.

The creators of JusTalks initially petitioned the school to add a course requirement on issues of race and identity. When this petition failed to achieve change, they came up with the idea for JusTalks, which, according to Alice Oshima ’15, will be required for first years starting in the fall of 2013.

After the event’s conception, the group held endorsement meetings with various clubs on campus, gaining a large group of supporters.

JusTalks sees their upcoming programming during Winter Term as away to  foster a more  diverse community.

Another founding JustTalks member, Katie McCreary ’15, believes that the College will benefit more from encouraging a more understanding climate on campus, instead of actually recruiting a more heterogenous student body.

“I went to public school in Washington, D.C. ... It [had] people from all over the city, from the wealthiest to some of the poorest.  I think a lot of students here don’t really get that opportunity because Middlebury itself is pretty homogenous. [Race and identity are] not necessarily discussed a lot,” said McCreary.

Oshima sees JusTalks as a starting point for the larger goal of establishing a more diverse social climate at the College.

“I think JusTalks is just a beginning step to a much larger change I would like to see happen,” said McCreary.

“I guess a broader goal would be to have a more diverse welcoming community, and the more we learn about each other and each other’s differences, the more that community will be created.”

Though the group is excited for an opportunity to spark dialogue, which they hope will help to create broader changes in the campus, they remain concerned about a few key issues.

Nicholas fears the event will come off as generic and pedantic but stresses that JusTalks is a unique opportunity to discuss important issues, not assert any one opinion.

“I think what we’re trying to do is put [students] in a situation that allow the things that they care about to come out, instead of [the students] having some preconceived notion of where the conversation is going to go,” he said.

Oshima worries people will not feel JusTalks is right for them if they do not identify with a minority group.

“We’ve wanted to make sure that someone who is a white male who is heterosexual, able, who doesn’t feel discriminated against ... that that person doesn’t feel like JusTalks is not for them,” said Oshima.

“Everyone is totally welcomed,” she added.