Campus and Community Dialogues returns to Minot State
MINOT, N.D. – The College of Arts and Sciences will host Campus and Community Dialogues at the Northwest Arts Center, Wednesday, April 27, from 7-9:30 p.m.
This term’s question is who should decide what gets taught in public schools? The three panelists will be Chelsie Hultz, assistant professor of education and kinesiology at MSU; Kolette Kramer, constitutional freedom activist; and Mark Vollmer, superintendent of Minot Public Schools. Jean-Francois Mondon, professor of French, German, Latin, and linguistics, and Alex Deufel, professor of biology, will moderate the event.
The event encourages the MSU student body and the larger Minot community to come together under civil discussion at a time when organizers believe people have fallen out of the habit of productive dialogue. As English professor and chair of the Division of World Languages and Cultural Studies, Robert Kibler believes that people are too separated into their spheres of beliefs nowadays.
“Because of social media and other factors, we've become put in silos,” he said. “Of information gathering, we only collect the information that we like, talking with only the people we agree with — which is no way to grow or to develop in any way. The Campus and Community Dialogues series takes as its premise the need for dialogue and civic engagement.”
Kibler believes that the event will spark interesting conversations, hoping that the audience will carry out most of them.
“We've got microphones, where the two facilitators go around, and everybody in the room puts a hand up, and they get to speak. Ideally, you know, whenever you have speakers speak, when they stop, there's a tendency to continue to ask them questions,” he said. “Our hope is to move it out into the crowd so that the crowd is responding to itself.”
Should any MSU student or Minot community member desire a fruitful discourse on the evening of the event, they can satisfy their appetite at the Northwest Arts Center Gallery.
About Minot State University
Minot State University is a public university dedicated to excellence in education, scholarship, and community engagement achieved through
rigorous academic experiences, active learning environments, commitment to public service, and a vibrant campus life.
| Published: 04/20/22 |
