Over a home-cooked meal of enchiladas, refried beans and Mexican rice, a group of 10 students dined Tuesday in the home of Stuart Lord, the dean of the Tucker Foundation and the College's assistant provost. The event was the first in a four-part series of dinner discussions called Tucker Dialogues aimed at answering questions raised by a racially turbulent Fall term.
Each dinner in the series centers on a different issue. On Tuesday night, the group focused on questions such as: Is it possible to have a campus free of hostility and are there ways that Dartmouth students are systematically excluded or ostracized?
The dinners, during which discussion is supposed to lead to problem-solving, are prepared and coordinated by Lord and two interns, John Shellito '07 and Amanda Greenberg '07.
Questions that may be addressed during the evening are sent to students before each dinner to give them time to contemplate issues that could arise.
"[The dialogues] bring students face to face in a different forum from what we're used to as college students," Shellito said, referring to the relaxed and social atmosphere of the dinners.
Meagan Patrick '10 said the dinner was particularly important for freshmen who have not had as many opportunities to engage in such conversations.
"[It's] really important that these kind of issues are discussed," she said.
While all students are eligible and welcome to participate in these dinners, the number of guests is typically limited to 12 per dinner. Tuesday night's dinner saw 10 students seated around Lord's dinner table after two canceled last-minute.
Students can propose questions and moderate dinners after they have attended one. Lord said he felt the dinners were important because they allow people to discuss issues that matter -- on campus, nationally and globally -- in an environment where they can "wrestle with different issues and examine them from all angles."
Before implementing the Tucker Dialogues seven years ago, Lord toured other colleges with similar programs to see what would work well at Dartmouth.
Lord identified one of the best parts of the Tucker Dialogues as the practice that "no conversation ends at the table."
As the students trickled out after the meal, Patrick, for one, said that she enjoyed listening to her peers' perspectives.
"Everyone should go," she said.
