Committee offers events to open campus dialogue

For the past year, a group of faculty members and students has been meeting to discuss ways of opening communication on homosexuality throughout the EMU community.

In April 2004 a Pride Celebration took place in which a large gay pride flag was unfurled on the front lawn of EMU. Following that demonstration, President Swartzendruber spoke in chapel on the issue of safety on campus. As a result of these events, the President's Cabinet asked University Accord to put a committee together that would talk about how to open dialogue on campus regarding homosexuality.

Over the fall 2004 semester, the Human Sexuality Dialogue Committee was formed. Its current members come from a variety of backgrounds. The members are Barry Hart (facilitator), David Brubaker, Deanna Durham, Julia Gingrich, Jerry Holsopple, Stephanie Miller, Ken L. Nafziger, Mark Thiessen Nation, Melody Pannell, and Lester Zook. They have been in discussion since last January, first getting to know each other and how to dialogue with each other. Hart and Miller said that it has been a learning process.

The committee was mandated to talk about homosexuality but found themselves focusing on the broader concept of human sexuality, an idea that Hart said "is critical for all of us." Miller said the group's goal is to model dialogue for the campus community. Their hope is "to change the atmosphere on campus...making it a place where we can live together," said Miller. The group is excited about the events they have planned, saying that dialogue will expand awareness of issues and cause the campus community to be "reflective and engaged."

Miller and Hart emphasized that the dialoguing will be a process. The series of planned events will begin with small group conversations in houses off-campus, primarily for upperclassmen. Realizing that "the campus is all at different points on dialogue," Miller said the committee feels juniors and seniors have been through the controversial events of the past few years, and therefore have more developed opinions. The committee hopes that the upperclassmen will be able to provide a model of mature dialogue for younger students.

Along with the small group talks, there are several other events planned. Ted Grimsrud and Mark Thiessen Nation, who will be involved with the discussions, will be leading a Feb. 10 chapel that will be followed by a dialogue in the Common Grounds. On Feb. 23 there will be a panel including Grimsrud, Thiessen Nation, and others that will host an interactive forum with an opportunity for questions and possible small group discussions.

A film series in Common Grounds is scheduled to begin March 13 with "Strawberry and Chocolate." A faculty-staff luncheon is planned for April 4.

The committee would also like to have a dialogue for seminary and graduate students, and is planning to have the Theater Department do a reading from a play. They plan to have activities continue into next year, and are flexible at this point with both the details of events already planned and those for the future.