Ngage, the campus conversation forum that began last year, is back again with a new set of topics. This year’s theme is “Everyday Ethics,” and sessions will include discussions on a variety of ideas.
Not only will the topics be different this year, but the format of the sessions has also changed. Instead of one year-long series, each session will feature a different real life subject.
Julie Elliott, dean of student life, said– last year’s theme “Sex and Love” was very popular with students and careful thought went into this year’s change of format.
“We didn’t want to overdo it and have students burn out on the same topic,” Elliott said.
“That’s where this everyday ethics thing came up,” Elliott said. “That kind of umbrella allows us to still have some kind of conversations around sex and love that we felt needed to continue from last year, but it also lets us bring in some new themes.”
Among the new themes, the one topic that will be discussed again is porn. More than three hundred students came to the session last year, so it will remain in the mix.
In addition to the discussion panel and speaker format for each session, several documentaries will now be a part of the series. These include “The Mask You Live In” which was shown at last week’s Ngage session, and “The House I Live In.”
The first session was Wednesday, Sept. 23, where students gathered in the Vogel Community Room to be challenged about what it means to be a man in America’s society.
“It revealed a lot about what our social construct of gender has convinced us that we have to be like and how that affects both men and women,” said McKenna Halter, a social work major.
She attended last year’s Ngage series and supports the change in theme.
“I think we talked enough about the ‘Sex and Love’ theme,” Halter said. “I am looking forward to the things they are talking about for this year because they are different.”
Ngage will occur monthly in the Vogel Community Room. Topics will include the following:
Porn: How it affects you, your partner and your relationships
Race, Class and Imprisonment in the US: The House I Live In
Your Digital Identity: What is the image you are projecting?
Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery
The Story Behind Your Plate: Eating with justice in mind
Sexual Objectification
Ngage’s 2015-16 series schedule with dates can be found on flyers on campus.
