By Students, For Students: The Building of an Inclusive Campus Community

The presentation focuses on a civic engagement project, at the heart of which is “If You Really Knew Me” or IYRKM, an event held near Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, that encourages open dialogue and the cultivation of understanding and empathy for fellow community members. At this event, students, faculty, and staff are asked a series of questions that help them reflect on their own experience of our community, as well as better understand others’ experiences. This event creates a safe space during which to discuss the ways that people of different races, ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations, religious backgrounds, socioeconomic statuses, and academic, mental and physical abilities experience life at Emory & Henry College. To build awareness of not only the event but its purpose on campus, students in Mass Media & Society worked with students in #socialjustice to execute a semester-long project that had three primary phases. First, the #socialjustice class designed and distributed a campus climate survey to better understand how students experience the community and, as importantly, how faculty, staff, and administrators think students experience the community. Next, Mass Media & Society students designed and implemented a social media campaign to raise awareness of the “If You Really Knew Me” goals and event. Finally, #socialjustice designed and distributed a survey to determine whether the social media campaign was “effective.” During each phase of the project, students in each class had specific assignments aimed toward satisfying the learning objectives of the individual class. For example, while Mass Media & Society students focused on developing an understanding of the challenges for social movements on campus and designing their own movement, #socialjustice students were evaluating social media movements around the world and discussing what constitutes an “effective” social media campaign. The goal was to involve students in dialogue about ways they could use tools like social media to make a meaningful change in their own community. Although we ultimately hoped to present to a faculty meeting what we learned and make recommendations moving forward, the challenges we encountered – particularly with the campus climate survey – made such a presentation a long-term rather than a short-term goal. Ultimately, as we redesign this project for future classes, we hope to collect reportable data that can serve not only to raise awareness of and attendance at the If You Really Knew Me event but also to make recommendations to college administration, faculty, staff and students regarding strategies for becoming an inclusive campus