More passive aggressive non-white supremacy on yet another campus
This fall, MountHolyokeCollegewill be offering a new pre-orientation opportunity, called “PromotingIntercultural Dialogue and Creating Inclusion,” for white, domesticfirst-year students.
The program is an optional subset of MountHolyoke’s pre-orientation for all incoming students, designed to give students the skills necessary for communication and leadership.
Inprevious years, international students were required to go to aspecific pre-orientation program while students of color were given anoptional pre-orientation. Now, white students will also have the sameopportunity.
Thevoluntary pre-orientation will cover the traditional issues of race andsocial justice. It will also help foster understanding of other racesthrough workshops and dialogues on an individual basis, and through theprogram’s collaboration with the other pre-orientation groups, whichinclude students of color and international students.
“I think the new pre-orientation program could be a really good thing,” said MountHolyoke freshman Emily McGranachan. “Last year before coming to MountHolyoke,I remember thinking, I wish there was some program that I qualified tojoin. A program discussing racism and social justice is important andfrom my experiences, often eye-opening.”
According to Elizabeth Braun, dean of students at MountHolyoke, the program is intended to address self-understanding and the complexity of other ethnic groups.
“[Theprogram] will get into traditional issues on an individual basis andalso involve more cross-cultural dialogue to become aware of thecomplexity of racial ethnicity,” said Braun.
What sparked the idea for such a program was “Intergroup Dialogues,” which are discussions held on the MountHolyoke campus throughout the academic year on the subject of race, inspired in part by the University of Massachusetts’ Intergroup Dialogue program.
“Theprogram will allow for a reflection of identity,” said Tanya Williams,dean of students and coordinator of multicultural affairs at MountHolyoke.“And when coming to a diverse college campus, it will hopefullyincrease [students’] comfort and understanding of friends, faculty andcolleagues.”
There has been a lot of positive feedback about the program.
“Bylearning about one’s identity and the cultures of outside groups, onewill become a better individual, and this will make for a richercommunity,” said Braun.
Theprogram is still in the process of development, and a board of studentswill be created to look over and evaluate the pre-orientation this fall.
“I’msure there are a lot of things the program board will be working out,but if executed properly, this could be a great addition to MHCorientation and a way to make white domestic students feel equallyvalued,” said McGranachan.
Dinah Gorelik can be reached at dgorelik@student.umass.edu.