A new series of talks called the Healthy Dialogue Series launched in the last year and has continued throughout the 2023-2024 school year.
The series — hosted by Jodi VanWingerden, coordinator for student support and sexuality programming, and the Provost’s Office — focuses on issues of sexuality and gender with the goal of “reflecting our commitments, who we are and how we handle difficult conversations where there are significant differences within the community,” according to Calvin University Provost, Noah Toly.
VanWingerden described the Healthy Dialogue Series as “a subset of the Sexuality Series,” which started at Calvin in 2006. During the series, Calvin brought speakers to talk about current issues surrounding sexuality and gender. Given such a broad range, VanWingerden said “there was a little bit of room to kind of imagine what it might look like.”
All speakers are chosen in a joint effort between VanWingerden and the Provost’s office. Speakers are invited to represent a wide range of opinion and scholarly engagement with the subject. “[We want speakers] who are engaging these topics with depth, rigor and sophistication, regardless of whether we already agree with them or not, or [whether] we think or we hear things that we like,” Toly said. Therefore, while the majority of speaker viewpoints will align with the university’s official position, not all of them will, according to Toly.
Speakers are not only chosen for their scholarly merit, but also by how they choose to engage sexuality and gender. “The other piece that’s really important when we’re looking at who to invite: it’s not only their content that matters. It’s about the content of their message, but also how they deliver it — the tone and the attitude,” VanWingerden said. For Toly, that attitude looks like “bring[ing] their best academic argument with the fruit of the Spirit, too.”
VanWingerden and Toly hope the majority of Calvin’s campus will engage with these talks. VanWingerden told Chimes that in addition to the main talk, the series offers three different opportunities for interaction with the speaker: a small group conversation for students, a conversation for faculty and staff and a conversation for seminary students, alumni and local clergy.
Student engagement has been very high for most of the series. “A couple of the cases, we had the audience pouring out into the hallway and seated in the hallway to listen,” Toly told Chimes.
“I think what has also really helped is that we’ve been able to partner with various departments,” VanWingerden said. Many professors are offering extra credit, having assignments based around the series and encouraging students to attend in general, which has helped engagement across the campus according to VanWingerden.
Both Toly and VanWingerden emphasized that this series is extremely relevant to the current unrest that Calvin students face as many community members have been wrestling with the CRC’s position on sexuality.
“The campus is anticipating that we’re in a year that could be really contentious in a lot of ways,” VanWingerden said. “This is something that I saw as an opportunity to model well what it looks like to have gracious conversation across differences, and I think Calvin has always done that and always tried to lean into that space.”
The Healthy Dialogue Series will continue this week with Mark Yarhouse’s talk on Wednesday Feb. 7 from 4-5 p.m in the Commons Annex Alumni Association Board Room. Students will be able to have a discussion with Yarhouse after his talk at the Sexuality and Gender Awareness (SAGA) meeting, which starts at 5 p.m.
