HAVERFORD – On the eve of students’ arrival to campus this fall, Haverford President, Wendy Raymond, announced the new initiative titled Meeting the Moment: Communities in Dialogue. Stated alongside Raymond’s announcement of the initiative was her decision to limit presidential statements. She highlighted that her five years at Haverford have shown the importance of group discussion to “[understanding] the world through each other.” Last year, President Raymond released 12 official statements in response to both local and international events.
Going forward, President Raymond will restrict official comments to “matters that directly impact Haverford or higher education,” clarifying that she plans only to offer positions on Haverford events and developments within higher education. In explaining her decision, President Raymond says she views her role on the Haverford campus as supporting its members, such as students, staff, or faculty, but not speaking for the college community.
Students are beginning to reflect on this recent announcement. After discussing the new announcement in his Ethics of Wokeness class, Scott Sussman, a senior at Haverford, stated that “while I don’t completely support the President stopping her emails, I do understand why, and if I were her, I wouldn’t be sending them either.”
Emphasizing her belief that press statements won’t foster dialogue, President Raymond intends to advance community dialogue to fulfill Haverford’s values through engagement, curiosity, and listening. To facilitate dialogue-focused communication on campus, Raymond announced the new discussion-focused program titled Meeting the Moment, which, according to coordinators, will operate until the end of the academic year. The initiative includes facilitated discourses, community gatherings, trainings, panels, and information about civic engagement opportunities. Campus community members are encouraged to propose programming ideas for the spring semester. The new initiative began the second week of classes and has drawn three to five participants to each session, according to organizers.
One of the first events of the series was held on Friday, September 21, 2024. Interfaith Philadelphia, an organization that works with individuals and communities to facilitate interfaith engagement and inter-religious understanding across religious groups, held a Communities in Dialogue session in Stokes Hall. The Friday workshop, titled Difficult Conversations: Interfaith Learning and Community Series, was student-only. A staff-only session was held the following week. The workshop focused on building skills, such as active listening and understanding how emotions, values, and facts interplay within conversations, for engaging in difficult topics. The workshop included group-wide participation and reflection. Milan Arado, a sophomore at Haverford who attended a workshop, expressed that he went to the workshop because [he] “wanted to get better at these types of conversations,” and described the experience as fun and interesting.
Events coming up include Active Dialogue Sessions focused on such general topics as “Navigating Complex Emotions” and “Critical Inquiry and Conflict Resolution,” along with these more specific topics such as “Interfaith learning.” Particularly notable in light of last year’s community upheavals are the upcoming workshops sharing perspectives on antisemitism and Zionism, under such headings as “Antisemitism 101 with the Anti-Defamation League,” and “Judaism Does (Not) Equal Zionism: Exploring American Jews’ Complicated Relationship to Israel/Palestine.”
While initial implementations of the Meeting the Moment initiative have drawn modest crowds thus far, event topics, such as discussions on the war in Gaza, will likely engage larger participation and controversy throughout the year.
