In an effort to improve the relationship between the Department of Public Safety and the Syracuse University community, the university will hold a series of dialogue circles between DPS officers and students.

Although there have not been any recently reported incidents of DPS harassment or the discharge of a weapon on campus, the dialogue circles aim to focus on building relationships and talk about police and community relations nationally and locally, said Rebecca Reed Kantrowitz, dean of the Division of Student Affairs, in an email.

The idea to hold dialogue circles that address DPS and SU community relations came from two students who worked with the former Dean of Hendricks Chapel, Tiffany Steinwert, Kantrowitz said.

Each of the two dialogue circles will have eight to 12 people, Kantrowitz said. She said dialogue circles in small groups of this size are the “most effective.”

The first dialogue circle will start Feb. 9 and continue every Tuesday until March 8. The second will start Feb. 10 and be held every Wednesday until March 9, said Shannon Feeney Andre, communications manager of the Division of Student Affairs.

SU is also holding a similar series of dialogue circles about race and ethnicity on campus.

The dialogue circles will be facilitated by InterFaith Works, a local nonprofit that conducts dialogue circles intended to “break down barriers among people and get people to understand each other and their stories,” said Peter Willner, director of the Center for Dialogue at InterFaith Works.

“Through the dialogue process, it’s revealed that people have more in common than in difference with each other,” Willner said. “People get to know each other, hear each other’s stories and build trust to have conversations about often difficult topics, like, for example, public safety on the SU campus.”

When there is a difference between people, he added, it is important to “respect those differences.”

The circles will be led by two facilitators from InterFaith Works who “contain the conversation and keep it moving forward,” Willner said.

“The participants are the real experts in their own stories,” he added. “Dialogue, in a lot of ways, is the direct opposite of debate.”

Willner, who used to work as a senior policy analyst at a nonprofit aimed at improving the justice system, said the dialogue circles are not just “all talk.” People feel heard and listened to at the end of dialogue and recognize assumptions they’ve made about other people, he said.

“Dialogue is not just talk,” he added. “In a lot of ways, it’s the opposite, it’s about listening.”

Although the goal of the dialogue circles is not to implement a new policy, dialogue circles in general can sometimes lead to concrete solutions, Willner said.

“The dialogue process is something where you need to build trust and understanding so you can build the platform on which policy reform, if that’s what might happen, can happen,” he said.

Students can sign up to participate in the DPS dialogue circles at the Division of Student Affairs Website.

Published on January 31, 2016 at 11:36 pm

Contact Rachel: rsandler@syr.edu