Kent State Residence Services to host sexuality panel

Dianna Warwick

The Department of Residence Services’ Social Justice team will host a sexuality panel as its second Campus Conversation tonight at 7 p.m. in 106 Manchester Hall. Campus Conversations is a series of discussions between students and faculty to discuss social justice issues.

Next Campus Conversations

  • Short Fuse – short film followed by discussion
  • Themes: classism, trust, national origin, race, gender roles
  • Date: March 14
  • Short Fuse Short – short film followed by discussion
  • Themes: assumptions, beliefs, values, relationships, perception vs. reality, point of view, holding the right

The panel will include different members from Pride! Kent with different sexual orientations and identities. They will talk about their issues with prejudice and how they have grown to take pride in their gender identity.

The Campus Conversation program has been going on for several years and used to be organized by different student organizations. But now, the Social Justice team is responsible for hosting the conversations.

“Residence Services decided to take on the program as a way to reach out to students and the community members to educate them,” said Eron Memaj, Koonce Hall residence director.

The Social Justice team consists of seven faculty and staff members within Residence Services. They meet biweekly to discuss which social justice issues they want to talk about at the conversations.

“We work to create a more inclusive and diverse community in the residence halls and also within the greater Kent State community,” said Chrissy Stonebraker, grad appointee of Residential Communities.

Memaj said the team’s goal is to bring awareness and advocate social justice issues, as well as creating a social and just environment.

“We want to get people to talk together and to understand where certain groups of people are coming from and how they’re feeling,” Memaj said. “We believe through dialogue and understanding, we’re able to solve a lot of these issues.”

Memaj said he encourages any students, faculty and community members to attend the conversations. They will host two additional conversations this semester. All of them will take place at 7 p.m. in Manchester Hall.

Contact Dianna Warwick at [email protected].