University-Wide Dialogue On Citizenship & Community
Reighard Multi-Purpose Room, Student Memorial Center
Wednesday, November 8, 2006
7:00 PM

It’s the sense of touch. In any real city, you walk, you know? You brush past people, people bump into you. In L.A., nobody touches you. We’re always behind this metal and glass. I think we miss that touch so much, that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something.
-- Crash (2004)


The intent of this dialogue is to discuss the ways in which Millersville represents a community that has unified its members in the pursuit of its goals, as well as the ways in which our community members encounter one another’s differences in ways that contribute to a wider social distance between them than we might like. Questions that will motivate that dialogue include, but are not limited to:

• What makes a community? Does a community have to be united and easily identifiable? What place do social and experiential differences have in a community?

• How do we perceive ourselves in relation to others in the community? Do – and should – we see only differences, similarities, or both?

• How do social and experiential differences between members of the Millersville community present problems for us or lead us to be distant from others? How do those differences contribute to the development of a unique Millersville University?

• What can individuals do to contribute to the development of a better community, and how should we think about what a “better community” looks like?