By Aaron Kalat
Following a heavily polarized political season, roughly 50 students gathered April 6 for an event facilitated to help inspire discussion between students on campus. “The Fish Bowl: A dialogue around polarizing issues” was designed to help inspire discussion between liberal and conservative leaning students on campus in light of recent events.
St. Michael’s College has been the setting of numerous hate driven acts including the scribbling of “Make America White Again” on posters promoting migrant justice, the theft of a Black Lives Matter flag from the Durick Library, and countless other acts of hateful vandalism.

“We want this event to be a starting point for conversation and listening,” said Cody Putnam, ’17, one of the event’s designers and coordinators with the Diversity and Inclusion Committee, “We are really stressing the importance of listening to each other’s views and opinions.”

The Fish Bowl was set up in a round table format, in which one group of students was brought in to discuss three questions:

1. What is the difference between the
Black Lives Matter, All Lives
Matter, and Blue Lives Matter
Movement?
2. What’s your understanding of the
idea of white privilege? How do
you think it affects other people?
3. In what ways does immigration
impact life inside and outside of
America?

Both groups had a chance to respond to the each question while the group from the opposing side of the political spectrum listened.

The two groups then convened at the table under the direction and supervision of Dr. Kristin Novotny, a professional moderator and associate professor at Champlain College. Participants were encouraged to engage one another with questions and issues with what they had heard during the separate discussions.

Novotny closed the event by discussing the “The Three Modes of Communication.”

“What we commonly see from our mainstream media is debate. Debate focuses on finding weakness in your opponent’s argument, with little listening or understanding. Tonight we moved towards discussion and deliberation.

By listening to each other’s differing ideas, hopefully we can move towards common understanding of the issues at hand.” said Novotny in her closing remarks.

In the eyes of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee, The Fish Bowl was not a solution, but rather a jumping off point for discussion.

Manuela Yeboah, ’17, secretary of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee called the event a “starting point to fight the lack of conversation” during her opening remarks for the event.

In the eyes of many, the event was just that, a beginning of discussion between two otherwise polarized campus populations.

Others, including one of the participants in the discussion, Conor Disher, ’17, weren’t so convinced of the event’s effectiveness.

When asked if the event would help to spark future discussions about political issues on campus, Disher responded with a stark “No.”

The self described “anarchist” represented the far-left view in The Fish Bowl, and he claimed “that the whole event felt like an ‘agree-fest.’”

“The liberals and moderate-conservatives were brought together tonight, but there is a far-right student population that was too afraid to show their face at this event. It isn’t the moderate-conservatism that is fostering hate on this campus, it is the new ‘Trump-servative’ group we have seen grow out of our political process,” insisted Disher.

Only time will tell if The Fish Bowl will inspire conversation on campus. Students and community members must be the driving force in eliminating hate and injustice, while also remaining accepting of differing political views.