Revive Sustained Dialogue

The June 3 On the Campus article, “What Had To Be Said,” about the controversy over questions of racism and free expression on campus, reminded me that in 1999 when I was a trustee, two students who were concerned that students of color felt marginalized on the campus started the first Sustained Dialogue program on campus to provide a space and process for enabling students to talk candidly about the problem.

Meeting every other week through the academic year, eventually they helped found the Sustained Dialogue Campus Network, which is now active on some 60 campuses in six countries. Unfortunately, Princeton students let the program lapse. It sounds as if now is the time to revive it. It would be far more effective than a one-off mass meeting in the Chapel.

Editor’s note: Sustained Dialogue is expected to be reinstated on campus in November, according to the staff of the Carl Fields Center.