On Monday, Nov. 24, in partnership with the Buntrock Institute of Freedom and Community, Student Government Association leaders Fiona Mundy ’26 and Kaya Clemons ’26 hosted Dinner with Six Strangers in the Trollhaugen Dining Room.
Dinner with Six Strangers is a discussion-based event that encourages students to engage in meaningful conversation. SGA gathered participants’ class years, majors, residence halls, and extracurriculars to ensure that no one at each table already knew one another. Students sat in groups of four to six with a moderator from the IFC who guided discussion with a list of questions. Groups could take as much time as needed to answer questions, and students could participate as much or as little as they wanted.
Mundy told The Olaf Messenger she learned about the event concept from Vice President of Community and Belonging Eduardo Pazos, who previously worked at Bowdoin College, where a similar event is held. The goals of the event are twofold: to give students space to communicate face-to-face and to foster personal connections that improve everyday conversation.
“The premise is that in this era of technology and social media, a lot of communication has become mediated through that technology,” Mundy said. “That makes it harder to have in-person conversations. People avoid small talk with people they don’t know. So we wanted to help students break out of that constraint and give them the first step into talking to people they don’t know.”
Associate Director of the IFC Kelly Shirah echoed Mundy, saying, “It’s really easy to socialize through your phone, but it’s not as fulfilling, and it’s not the connection of sitting face to face and speaking with somebody. That’s a lot more powerful. The more opportunities students have to come together and talk, the more opportunity there is to connect and have a better community across campus.”
Although student-initiated and led, the IFC partnered with SGA to support the event because its goals align with the institute’s mission.
“We’ve heard from a lot of students that conversations about politics are tough, and that there’s a real hunger to have better discourse on the issues that matter—not necessarily to persuade somebody, but to see where folks are coming from and learn that way,” said Chris Chapp, professor of political science and director of the IFC. “Dinner with Six Strangers is low stakes. It’s a conversation about college life. The idea is to create a space where we can have a normal conversation and give each other permission to be as honest as we can possibly be.”
Forty students attended the event. Both SGA and the IFC plan to host another dinner next semester.
“I thought it was really successful. It was really nice to talk to and get to know people I wouldn’t be able to talk to otherwise,” said SGA Gender and Sexuality Senator Spirit Sukut ’28. “A lot of first-years were there, and it was nice to see that because I haven’t really had a chance to talk to most of the first-years so far, unless they’re in my extracurricular activities.”
