Building bridges towards a better tomorrow
By Jennifer Palmberg
The Collegian
“The more we know the
less we fear” is the slogan of Building Bridges Tackling Fears,
a program offered by the Women’s Resource Center.
The program was an exercise held as part of the NAtional Coalition Building
Institution training conference faculty members of the resource center
attend each year in New York. Faculty members borrowed the concept and
brought it to campus as part of a program held the first Tuesday of every
month.
“We observe moods on campus and in society and that’s how
we come up with the topic for each meeting,” said Women’s
Resource Center faculty member Deborah Napoleon. “This month’s
topic is racism, last month’s was xenophobia: the fear of foreigners
and next month’s topic will be classicism.
“We allow students and faculty members to sign up to be panel speakers
and they proceed to explain how the topic has affected their lives personally,”
Napoleon said. “The audience is not allowed to interrupt or ask
questions during this portion. Then the audience and speakers break into
groups and discuss how each speaker’s story made them feel and what
can be done to solve the issue. Then the meeting goes on from there.”
Napoleon said the meetings hold a confidential atmosphere so this month’s
speakers could not be revealed prior to the event.
The objective of the program is to study a topic from many different view
points to better understand how it affects society, then apply how each
view makes you feel so you can analyze and better understand any unexplained
anxiety you might have concerning the topic.
“We want to dismiss any stigma there might be surrounding a topic,”
Napoleon said.
The next meeting will be held tomorrow, Nov.8 from 5-6:30 p.m. in the
USU room 312-314.
For more information or to participate on the panel contact Matilde Gonzalez
at 278-6946.
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