Dartmouth will host the fourth annual Beyond the Box conference, a weekend-long event about multiculturalism on collegiate campuses, that will be attended by representatives from several area liberal arts schools.
The weekend, which kicks off on Feb. 23, will include a keynote address by Frances Kendall, Ph.D., a dinner speech by Trustee Michael Chu '68, a talent showcase of student performances and other workshops.
Twenty-nine colleges have been invited to this year's conference, Deimosa Webber-Bey, Programming Assistant for Student Life and the conference's coordinator said. Webber-Bey expects that the conference will meet its targeted number of 150 student, faculty and staff participants.
Swarthmore College founded and hosted the first Beyond the Box conference in 1998. The conference was born out of the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity in Higher Education (ENCORE) and was designed to bring together representatives from different schools to share strategies, programs, and models of multicultural living and to address concerns of diversity that are specific to smaller colleges.
The theme of this year's conference is "CommUnity Partnerships: Changing Apathy to Activism" and is intended to "highlight the ways in which bridges between [students, administrations, faculty and different affinity groups] on small campuses can and have been built ... and are the first step towards stamping out the biggest obstacle to progress: apathy," according to the conference's web site.
The conference will examine ways to work across power relationships and racial and gender relations, Webber-Bey stressed.
In her keynote address, Kendall will ask the question of how committed one's school is to diversity, Webber-Bey said. Her talk will be open to the whole campus and held in Filene Auditorium. Kendall, who hails from the San Francisco area, has consulted and facilitated in workplace and institutional settings for over twenty years, addressing the issue of diversity.
On Saturday, Feb. 24, there will be approximately 20 workshops in which facilitators will present an issue or project on their campus in an effort to brainstorm ideas for recreating programs at other schools. In keeping with the conference's theme, workshop facilitators were encouraged to work with another segment of their campus, whether it be students working with staff or different departments joining together.
Dartmouth's Student Employment Office and the Tucker Foundation will offer a workshop called "Affording Activism," which will explore how students can afford to devote time to volunteer during their off-terms and while on campus.
Kendall will conduct two workshops called "Introducing the Subject of White Privilege to Your Campus: Stages and Strategies" and "What Change Agents Need to Know."
Following the workshops, Chu will speak at a catered dinner in Collis Commonground. As a founder of Pegasus Venture Capital, a firm that provides venture capital in Latin America, Chu will speak about applying ideas about diversity in one's life, according to Webber-Bey.
A talent showcase will be held on Saturday evening featuring multiple groups including Chinese Dance Troupe, Roots of Rhythm and Ballet Folklorico de Dartmouth, according to Ruth Morgan, chair of the Special Events committee. The showcase will be followed by a student party in Poison Ivy in the Collis Center.
Participants will evaluate the conference at a closing brunch on Sunday morning.
Beyond the Box will come to the College following the attendance of last year's conference by three Dartmouth administrators and three students, a trip that was organized by Career Services' diversity committee. The students who went were empowered by their experience at the conference and wanted to bring it to Dartmouth, especially in light of recent conversations about the World Cultures Initiative and the Student Life Initiative in general, according to Marilyn Grundy, Assistant Director of Career Services.
"[The organizers] thought it would be the perfect example of a conference that would embrace all of the diversity advisors and programs at Dartmouth ... There is a lot to celebrate that is happening here," Grundy added.
