Emory Student talk

During the spring semester, the Office of Emory University President Claire E. Sterk announced a new series, “Conversations on the Quad,” which debuted in April on the Emory Quadrangle. The following welcome and keynote remarks, dozens of students, staff, and faculty – sitting in Adirondack chairs in small groups – engage in dialogue around the event’s specific theme.

The second event in the series was hosted in partnership with TableTalks on Oct. 4. The theme was "community" and President Sterk welcomed guests. Keynote remarks were delivered by Ed Lee, senior director of the nationally noted Barkley Forum for Debate, Deliberation and Dialogue, a unit of Campus Life. Lee’s remarks, lightly edited for print, follow.

signage for Conversations on the Quad Conversations on the Quad are hosted from 1 to 3 p.m., with refreshments provided. Photo by JB Brown

As a debate coach, I have come to appreciate the need to have a shared understanding of terms before we wade into meaningful discussions. I am also fascinated with the etymology of words and how the exploration of the roots of a word can reveal much about people and the places they reside.

In the 15th Century, the Middle English word for “community” was commonly meaning "land held in common.” That makes our beautiful Quad – the land we hold in common at the heart of our campus – a fitting place for our conversation about community.

The original designer of Emory’s campus, Henry Hornbostel, did an amazing job taking random, discarded remnants from marble slabs of different colors and using them to create the architectural marvel that surrounds us.

As I thought about the distinct pink, gray, and white calico design that adorns our initial buildings and several subsequent iterations, I was reminded of Michaelangelo’s notion that dwelling within every slab of marble is a beautiful sculpture. We only need to remove excess material to reveal the exquisite work of art living within.

I believe President Sterk has called us together today to start to chisel out a hospitable and, dare I say, an eminent “community” from the striking marble that surrounds us.

As we take a little time for what we hope will be engaging in conversations that will help us sculpt our Community of Eminence, I provide three sets of questions to frame our encounters:

  • Who is missing from the discussion?
  • What spaces are conducive for being communal?
  • And what conditions are needed to encourage us to live communal lives?
Conversation on the Quad discussion materials.Discussion-starter materials are provided for each group. Photo by JB Brown.

First, who is missing from the conversation but needs to be present for Emory to be the community you desire it to be? If we want to make a difference, we need to design and participate in conversations that matter.

Those conversations tend to be spontaneous and unexpected. Impactful encounters encourage us to dwell in the land of the unknown where we can simultaneously learn something new about ourselves and those who honor us by serving as our conversation partners.

Our encounters in the land of the unknown are teeming with excitement and possibility. Those who dare to seek out the missing or silenced voices and perspectives and agitate for their inclusion are our most devoted champions of a thriving, innovative, and resilient Emory community.

Second, we should also explore where on our campus we feel most comfortable coming together. Why does that space feel welcoming?

I may be the only person who loved and will truly miss the old Winship Ballroom in the old Dobbs University Center, which needed to be destroyed for the construction of the Emory Student Center. While Winship was an odd space with poor acoustics and terrible temperature control, it was the place I was introduced to my first true love – debate. I always felt like I was coming home when I entered the Winship Ballroom.

Each summer, the Barkley Forum invites high school and middle school students to our campus for debate camp, and many moons ago I was one of those students. The first debate I ever saw was in Winship. I was floored by the capacity of Emory students to masterfully discuss such heady social issues. I was even more amazed that they invited me into their community to be a part of the conversation.

I was a poor black kid from a broken home being raised by a loving grandmother. Very few people would have seen the benefit of inviting me to that conversation. I am so grateful Melissa Maxcy Wade and the Barkley Forum debaters did.

For me, the Winship Ballroom was always a space that reminded me of the power of sharing with others without expecting a return on that investment. It reminded me of the amazing possibilities and opportunities that reveal themselves when we freely share our gifts.

Have you found your Winship Ballroom? Have you found that space on our campus that allows you to be comfortable while being intellectually curious? If you have, are you sharing it with others?

Participants discuss the concept of community.Groups of students, staff, and faculty collectively engage the theme of each Conversations on the Quad event. This theme was Community. Photo by Erin Oquindo.  

So, my final question is: Will you choose to build community? I don’t want to leave you with the impression that this project of community-building is easy. In fact, it is risky and difficult. It is fraught with discomfort. It requires all of us to be in spaces that are occasionally emotionally, intellectually, and ideologically challenging. It requires us to ask probing questions of those in power. It requires us to be willing to make a little trouble when the greater good of the collective hangs in the balance.

Most importantly, it requires the strength to listen when our strongest impulse is to speak our truth. We exist during a time when I believe one of the more powerful forces for social change is our capacity to listen to those we expect to disagree with. Each of us must choose to be communal if we are going to cultivate communities that are hallmarks of hospitality and rigorous inquiry.

As I look out on the unique calico design of the buildings that surround us, I am reminded that our unique stories and experiences are the building blocks for the community.

I am reminded that the willingness to share our differences and combine our distinct ideas will produce an elaborate mélange of communal creativity that can only be found at Emory.

I am reminded of the philosopher and psychologist, William James, who once argued:

I am done with great things and big plans, great institutions and big successes. I am for those tiny, invisible loving human forces that work from individual to individual, creeping through the crannies of the world like … like the capillary oozing of water, yet which, if given time, will rend the hardest monuments of human pride.

I think William James would conclude that the conversations we will have on our beautiful Quad today – on the land we hold in common at the heart of our campus – are tiny loving human forces capable of transforming the world one individual at a time. They, indeed, have the capacity to rend human pride, selfishness, and greed defenseless in our pursuit of a Community of Eminence.

Thank you for your time.

 

Learn more:

Share your thoughts about the community at 'Conversations on the Quad'
Emory Report, Sept. 26, 2018
https://news.emory.edu/stories/2018/09/er_conversations_on_the_quad/campus.html

President's 'Conversations on the Quad' inaugural event to take place April 5
Emory Report, March 28, 2018
http://www.news.emory.edu/stories/2018/03/er_tn_conversations_on_the_quad/campus.html

Let's chat: TableTalk sparks cross-cultural conversation
Emory Report, Nov. 11, 2014
https://news.emory.edu/stories/2014/11/er_table_talk_conversations/campus.html

Barkley Forum for Debate, Deliberation, and Dialogue
http://barkleyforum.emory.edu/index.html