Since 2018, MSU Dialogues has provided a learning experience for students, faculty, and staff that brings people together from various identity groups to discuss a variety of topics that help participants gain awareness, understanding, and explore perspectives outside of their own. For students, MSU Dialogues is a 1-credit UGS course and is considered professional development for faculty and staff. The series runs for six weeks during the Fall and Spring semesters and covers a variety of topics such as:
- Communication and Identity
- Intersectionality
- Themes of Oppression
- Allyship and Action
- Healing and Joy
Tyler Smeltekop, Assistant Director of Assistive Technology Innovation with MSU RCPD, is a co-facilitator of this series and shares, “MSU Dialogues is a safe space for attendees to develop trust and understanding with each other over the course of the six-week series, and one of our primary community parameters is, “what is learned here leaves here, what is shared here, stays here.”
Smeltekop has been a part of MSU Dialogues since 2020 when he was an attendee, participating online during the Covid-19 pandemic. He was then asked to be a co-facilitator of the program and currently serves in this role, in addition to his full-time job with MSU RCPD. “Participants are encouraged and welcome to share about their personal lived experience first and second hand to engage with the topics raised in a meaningful and vulnerable fashion,” says Smeltekop. He continues, “The core of the MSU Dialogues mission is to facilitate and model how dialogue differs from discussion and debate; discussion usually is expected to have an outcome, such as a decision or agreement, whereas debate is rooted in "winning". In contrast, dialogue is about understanding and listening, without an expected outcome or goal besides being open to learning more about others’ lived experiences.”
To learn more about MSU Dialogues, visit MSU Dialogues | Institutional Diversity and Inclusion | Michigan State University. You can also email Jade Richards, the program coordinator, at jader@msu.edu.