Friday, Sep. 25, a mix of LMU students and faculty sat down for a meal in front of the palm south lawn, the first part of a monthly series put together by LMU’s intercultural facilitators program in an effort to create dialogue across differences on campus.
Led by student Intercultural facilitators, Khamalia Williams and Rikisha Chahal, the discussion focused on organization involvement, opportunities on campus, and concluded with a reflection on everyone’s journey to LMU.
Williams, a communications major and first year intercultural facilitator stressed the importance of a safe space to talk about topics like race, sex, sexuality, politics, religion, and more.
“Everything that’s said in our spaces stays in our spaces, creating a brave space for people to talk about things,” Williams said. “Especially right now when people are scared, their walking on eggshells, there’s threats of getting programs cut, of getting kicked out of school, just for speaking your mind. It creates really healthy dialogue on campus”
The students who attended seemed to appreciate the space for that same reason, like junior transfer student Devonte Barner who was impressed by the first meeting of the year.
“It shows me everybody can sit down, were all from different backgrounds, we all have different stuff happening, but we can all come together to talk about a mutual thing we have going on,” he said.
Students at all points of their LMU journey got a chance to be heard from as the discussion shifted from adjusting to a new city and school as a freshman, to career goals and aspirations for graduating seniors.
Oli Rodriguez, the Assistant Director for Cultural Connection and Dialogue at LMU, was one of the most active members of the discussion. Encouraging others to get involved in the discussion, she was quick to point out the value it brings to campus.
“We are in a day and age where we often only see each other by our differences, but when we see that yes we are different, but we are also alike, those differences wont be the things that divide us but the things we celebrate as a community.”
In the future, Williams says together monthly plans to have specific topics of conversation for their meetings to create dialogue across differences. The next together monthly will take place Oct. 30, and will once again include a complimentary family style lunch paired with introspective discussion.
