Recognizing the essential role that Communal Dining (CD) plays in fostering meaningful connections among students, the College, and the broader college experience, and taking into account the valuable suggestions provided by students, the new initiative ‘Dinner Dialogue’ is designed for regular meal plan participants during CD.

Ice-breaking Conversations

A comprehensive list of engaging questions and discussion topics designed to facilitate ice-breaking conversations will be designed. Each table of eight will have the opportunity to draw from this list on every Thursday, allowing the students to engage in enriching discussions at their tables during dinner. Additionally, students are welcome to propose their own topics, which will be recorded by College staff or the Resident Tutor on duty for reference.

Activity Participation for GECW1000–4000

Following these discussions, students may choose to have their discussion experience recorded as a College-recognized activity to fulfill part of the activity requirements for the non-credit-bearing College General Education Courses: GECW1000, 2000, 3000 & 4000 Non-formal Learning I, II, III & IV.

The conditions are as follows:
1) To ensure that the initiative promotes meaningful dialogue, student groups (a maximum of 8 meal plan participants per table) will be required to share a brief summary of their discussions (approximately 1–2 minutes) with the entire student body during the last half hour of CD (e.g. between 7:30 and 8:00 pm). At least one representative from the group will be required to speak from his/her table using a microphone, fostering a sense of community and encouraging active participation.
2) To document this participation, College staff or Resident Tutor on duty will take a photo of the group at their table after the summary is presented, and will record the discussion topic, as well as participants’ names and SID immediately.

One activity attendance will be recorded after completion of above conditions. Each term, out of the total number of required activities, a maximum of three can be fulfilled by participating in this initiative, thereby encouraging students to actively engage in communal interactions.