Beilock Launches Campus Dialogue Project

On Wednesday, April 7, Dartmouth formally launched OneSmallStep, a new initiative supposed to help students have genuine and open conversations by pairing them with their political opposites. For this initiative, Dartmouth is working in partnership with StoryCorps, a national organization which specializes in just this form of dialogue. The project began at Dartmouth in February when, over the course of a few days, StoryCorps recorded a number of pilot conversations with students to use as a model for further conversations. I had the privilege of being selected for the first recording, along with my conversation partner Adithi. 

StoryCorps was founded in 2003 when Dave Isay placed a small recording booth in Grand Central Terminal in New York City. People could come into the booth in pairs and ask each other questions for a set amount of time. The recording would then be archived in the Library of Congress forever. As the project grew, with new locations added, StoryCorps recorded conversations from almost 700,000 participants, collecting the stories of grandparents, neighbors, teachers, builders, children and many others. 

In 2018, StoryCorps launched OneSmallStep in response to the growing political divide in the country. The goal of this new project is to bring people from different sides of this political divide to a recording table and have them talk for around 50 minutes about themselves, their background, upbringing, family, and the things that matter most to them. The result being that, after seeing each other as humans first, they might begin to understand the influences that may lead someone else to develop political views that are different from their own. 

It is because of this commitment to open and free conversation that President Beilock quickly took up the opportunity to collaborate with StoryCorps to bring OneSmallStep to Dartmouth. Beilock has previously spoken about the need for brave spaces, “where we feel we can make mistakes, where we feel not everyone has to think the same way we do, where it’s okay to have very different points of view and still be close with someone.” OneSmallStep is one of the ways in which she plans to bring about these conversations. 

I was invited to the launch event, along with other students who took part in the first pilot conversations. In the audience, all segments of the Dartmouth community were represented: students, faculty, staff, alumni, and Hanover residents. All present to celebrate “one small step” in the right direction—towards more open-minded civil discussion. As the other students and I spoke of the need for freer expression, the audience met us with nods and applause, representing a sharp split from the hesitation around such discussions only one or two years ago.

In the following conversation between President Beilock and StoryCorps President Isay, moderated by Templeton Prize winner Professor Marcelo Gleiser, both sides expressed a genuine desire for the future of this partnership. When asked about the need to balance free speech with safety concerns, Beilock said that she would err on the side of safety but only because such safety is required to have the kinds of difficult conversations that a place like Dartmouth was made for.

Dave Isay showed similar optimism. When asked by a student, who identified themselves as trans, how such conversations could be had when the opposing side denies the right of trans people to exist, Dave Isay replied by stating that the vast majority of people along the entirety of the political spectrum are moderates who are willing and eager to sit down and have meaningful dialogue. He added that we should not perceive either half of the country by the arguments of the few extremes.

Finally, Beilock and Isay shared that the plan is to continue recording conversations during this term, and train students to become facilitators so that Dartmouth can continue this effort on their own. All members of the Dartmouth community as well as local residents are encouraged to sign up to be paired with someone of the opposing political view and sit down for a 50-minute chat.

The heart of this initiative, as put by Isay, is to remember that this is just “one small step”. It will not solve all of our problems, but at least it acknowledges their presence. As a majority of Americans are tired by the current political discourse, this is a sign that the tides are changing.