Community at Cornell

What

Community at Cornell is a required program for new Cornellians to engage with fellow incoming students and practice skills for meaningful and collaborative communication. This program is an opportunity to explore how learning from your own and others’ lived experiences can help you maximize what you gain from your time in college and prepare you for your future in an increasingly interconnected world. Through reading, written reflection, and experiential activities, you will have an opportunity to learn and practice intentional communication strategies and reflect on how you might use them in your time at Cornell.

This program has two parts:

Part 1: A short reading, followed by a brief reflection assignment

Part 2: A 2-hour interactive and peer-led, virtual session

(Almost all of) the 64 facilitators who led our August 2019 Create Community Across Difference Sessions (plus Finn the dog). We had 32 undergraduate students, 19 recent IDP alum, 9 graduate students, and 4 staff facilitate 185 sessions in 4 days!

Why

The experience of being a Cornellian extends far beyond what is learned in lectures. As incoming students start this new chapter of learning and growth, their identities and personal experiences shape how they interact with others and form new relationships on campus. The ability to communicate and collaborate across difference, as well as to learn from someone else’s lived experiences will enable them to maximize what they gain from their time here. It will also allow them to actively contribute to making Cornell a more open and supportive community and better prepare them for their future in an increasingly interconnected world.

Our goal is for participants to feel challenged in a positive way by new perspectives. We hope to spark the desire and the confidence in participants so that they are compelled to learn more about and reflect upon their own identities and experiences, as well as the identities and experiences of others.

Our main goals are to use intentional communication strategies to:

  • Explore opportunities and challenges associated with your transition to Cornell
  • Reflect on what can be learned from the diversity that exists on campus and in your communities
  • Connect with fellow incoming students

How

In September 2017, President Martha E. Pollack announced the formation of the Presidential Task Force on Campus Climate, composed of faculty, staff and students on the Ithaca campus, and charged with making specific recommendations about how Cornell can implement meaningful institutional change that leads to a campus climate that is more diverse and inclusive, and that expresses greater respect and understanding (Presidential Task Force on Campus Climate, 2017). The task force will identify the problems that are preventing us from being a fully welcoming and inclusive community and make specific recommendations about how our community can move forward with greater respect, understanding and inclusivity” (2017). In the extensive outreach conducted by the Campus Experience sub-committee, members repeatedly heard that IDP is an excellent model for diversity education on campus and should be mandatory for all students. Thus an early recommendation emerged from the Task Force to offer mandatory introductory intergroup dialogue sessions to all incoming students.

In August 2018, the Intergroup Dialogue Project (IDP) launched the Community at Cornell program. Incoming students completed a short reading followed by a written reflection that introduced the concept of dialogue and asked them to reflect on how they might use it in their time at Cornell. During Orientation, every student attended one of 169 sessions over the course of 5 days. In addition to IDP’s current undergraduate, graduate, and staff facilitators, IDP recruited 22 of their recent alumni facilitators from across the country to support this massive effort. 

In January 2019, IDP expanded the program to include incoming transfer students.

In summer 2020, when it became clear that in-person sessions would not be able to take place during Orientation due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the IDP team worked to adapt the Community at Cornell program to a virtual environment.

Our shift to virtual sessions has also allowed us to complete the program with students prior to their arrival on campus. Community at Cornell is now able to serve as part of new students’ introduction to Cornell’s values. 

Assessment Highlights

After offering the program for the last four years, and conducting thorough assessment for the last three, we are excited to see the profound impact on students and the Cornell community. Students express seeing others in a more complex way, feeling more prepared to form meaningful connections across difference, and feeling more connected to others at Cornell.

Survey responses from each cohort of CAC participants indicate that this program provides students with an opportunity to reflect on their own and others’ social identities during their transition to Cornell. A majority of participants report that they leave the session seeing others in a more complex, nuanced way and feeling more interested in understanding their own social identities. 
“[I learned] that everyone around me is also struggling with reconciling their identity. I originally thought I was alone in thinking that I wouldn’t fit in given my “unique” identity, but speaking one-on-one with others who are feeling the same way made me realize that I’m not alone, and that I can be comfortable reaching out to everyone around me as they too are also having difficulty understanding their identities.” – Fall 2021 CAC participant 
When asked, a majority of CAC participants indicated that the skills they practiced during the session would help them form more meaningful connections across difference, and that they are more interested in forming these connections.
“I learned that connecting and communicating through shared values can help bridge differences and that acknowledging and affirming someone else’s words really adds value and meaning to a conversation.” – Spring 2021 CAC participant
For many, the session itself offers an opportunity for connection; overall, a majority of participants say that their experience in CAC made them feel more connected to others at Cornell. This can be especially profound during this time of transition.
“I realized that a lot of people around me have similar experiences, worries, and insecurities to me and that I can relate to them in more ways than I thought I could.” – Fall 2019 CAC participant
This semester, we conducted focus groups and interviews with students from all class years to better understand the long-term impacts of this program. We are still analyzing the data collected from these and will share additional findings in the future.
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The abbreviated Intergroup Dialogue session during freshman orientation was one of the most amazing experiences. Previously, I was never given the opportunity to sit down with someone I had never met before and discuss my personal identity without judgment. I established ever-lasting friendships with other freshmen in my discussion. I learned an astonishing amount about myself, my leaders, and others. I would love to have the opportunity to participate in weekly discussions similar to what I experienced my first week at Cornell.

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I will definitely be able to use the skills i learned from the workshop in my day-to-day life. Many of the skills I learned about would help me to better connect to those around me.

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I learned how to listen and be present to show respect in a conversation, especially me who is really shy about meeting people who are new and forging connections that are new.

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I learned the importance of being authentic in your own opinions rather than avoiding conflict and always simply agreeing. Dialogue can create new understandings only by first acknowledging the differences.

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I learned about the tool LARA and how to communicate effectively with people, especially those from different backgrounds and who have different perspectives from me.

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It will be very useful in interpersonal communication, especially with people of significantly different backgrounds and with different perspectives.