Dickerson calls for campus unity
Vice President for Campus Life Janet Dickerson addressed a small student audience as part of the ?What Matters Most to Me and Why? lecture series hosted by the Religious Life Council (RLC). Dickerson shared memories of her upbringing and described how the values imparted by her family inform her actions in her current position.One of her present goals, Dickerson explained, is to ?continue to work to create a level playing field,? so that students from different backgrounds can make connections in substantive ways, without feeling that they have to be members of selective organizations.Dickerson reflected on the benefits of growing up in a campus community and told the audience about her childhood in the rural, ?nuclear? community of Denmark, S.C., where she lived on the campus of Voorhees College, a historically all-black institution.?We were really the children of the community,? Dickerson said, adding that she was in many ways ?sheltered? from the harsh reality of segregation at the time.She said that she was especially thankful that her family had placed a strong emphasis on faith and learning.Among the values imparted to her by her faith, Dickerson said, was the concept of hospitality.