The below email was sent to the community on Feb. 1, 2017
Dear Bryn Mawr Community Members,
Bryn Mawr's third Community Day of Learning (CDL) will take place on Wednesday, March 22 from 9:15 a.m. - 4 p.m. So that all students, staff, and faculty can participate, all Bryn Mawr classes will be cancelled during this time, and offices will be closed. A streamlined lunch and dinner menu will be offered so that Dining Services staff may also participate.
In response to a campus survey of interest in topics for this year's CDL, the student-faculty-staff planning committee has developed the theme “Minds and Bodies: Belonging in Our Communities.” This theme is designed to be a broad framework in which we can explore the many factors that contribute to a sense of belonging within a community (the various aspects of our physical identities, our social/ cultural/ national identities, our psychological identities). We hope sessions will look at the spoken and unspoken assumptions about belonging at Bryn Mawr or in other communities in which we take part, and how each of us helps to define the nature of our communities.
The planning committee invites all students, staff, and faculty to consider either offering a session or letting us know if they are interested in helping to organize a session that is in the planning stages. Proposals are welcome from groups and from individuals. We anticipate that sessions will be diverse in topic and format, and that many sessions will look at the intersections that shape both individual and group identities. Here’s a sample of some early proposals we have received:
- A storytelling session about coming to the U.S. as an immigrant or as an international student
- Body Image and the Pressure of Beauty Myths
- Racism and Mental Health
- Being an Athlete at a “Scholarly” Institution
- Embodying Struggle: The History of Nonviolent Protest
- Perceptions and Realities of Disabilities.
If you are interested in proposing a session or taking part in a session that others are working to organize, please fill out a proposal form that can be found at: https://www.brynmawr.edu/community-learning/propose-session.
If you would like to talk with members of the planning committee to develop session content and/or facilitation skills, please drop by the information session that will be held on Sunday, February 12th from 2:00-4:00 p.m. in Dalton 25. If you are unable to make this time but would still like to speak with someone about your idea, please email us at community-day-of-learning@brynmawr.edu. Note: closer to the CDL, we will also provide an opportunity for presenters/ facilitators to get input on strategies for facilitating discussion, making presentations, etc.
On behalf of the CDL planning committee,
Ruth Lindeborg
Haverford, Swarthmore, and Penn classes are not cancelled on March 22. Students must get permission from their instructors to miss these classes.