Projects / Mars Hill College,
Building Capacity for Difficult Dialogues
PI: Stan Dotson, Dean, Life Works Learning Partnership.
Mars Hill College will build its capacity for difficult dialogues through academic and programming activities. Building on its general education program, which engages each student in a particular community issue through theme-based sequential seminars each year, Mars Hill will strengthen student and faculty cultural competency, developing a respectful understanding and appreciation of diverse cultures.
The project will focus on three themes: religion, sexual orientation and race. Three student affinity groups on campus personify those themes: evangelical Christians, gay and lesbian students and their friends, and African-Americans. These three themes and campus constituencies have emerged at Mars Hill College as significant sources of tension and have led to a series of critical conversations in the past year around each of these issues.
Working initially with a core faculty group around cultural competency and dialogue, leading to course enhancement across the disciplines, the project will develop pedagogical approaches to build the skills of active listening and civil discourse in courses faculty teach on a regular basis. At the same time, Mars Hill will build capacity among Residential Life student leadership to facilitate respectful dialogues among the students in their residence halls. Curricular and co-curricular activities will converge on the three themes of the project with the aim of enhancing fundamental democratic values necessary for a pluralistic society.