Jordan Alcasas
News Editor
Daniel Loera, director of multicultural affairs, opened the “Community Building for Belongingness Series” for the semester with a lecture on communication and identity intersectionality. The lecture was Tuesday for an audience of 23 people in the Quay Davis Executive Board Room.
The lecture had a large focus on how we communicate, whether that be verbally or through our body language. Both things have importance and are necessary to be conscious of when communicating with others.
“We are not always conscious about what messaging we give our bodies,” Loera said. “We are gonna talk about three areas: speaking, listening, and then attitude… attitude combined with speaking and listening is a big part of communication overall.”
After introducing the topic, Loera began an exercise where he put up three signs that featured varying levels of agreement. The options were: always, sometimes, never. Then, two helpers would read prompts and the lecture audience would walk to the sign with the corresponding level of agreement.
Students that participated in the exercise would also give out their reasonings for their choices after moving. One of the prompts given was about how willing people are to speak in new social situations.
“I think it depends who is in the room.” Eliana Ramirez, a senior kinesiology major said. “It depends on the settings I am in, that I’ll be more comfortable and confident, but if it is, like, a first day of school icebreaker, respectfully, I’m last.”
One of the common themes following that prompt was that students were questioning how intentional they are about their communication and about how they listen to others in conversations.
“I was always taught you have two ears and one mouth, so you listen twice as much as you speak,” Stacey Strickland, adjunct professor of dance at the University, said.
Some students expressed anxiety around speaking or communicating with others has also been something that they have had to break away from in university. Learning how to communicate better with others and how to be more purposeful about creating opportunities to communicate with others is important.
“I started doing this (series) my sophomore year of school,” Kira Annis, a senior biology major, said. “My freshman year, I was very scared. In my sophomore year, I was like, ‘let me go around and be involved and go talk to people and stuff.’ In spring, I did the community belongingness series and I have been coming back since.”
Body language was also noted as a very important form of communication. Body language has a large impact on how people are perceived by others and how they perceive others.
“Wathcing people, I can now read a person just by seeing what is going on, even from their facial expressions,” Strickland said. “You can kind of tell when someone is having a great day or not so much… I tell my students our walk is our first impression. Whatever approach that is, you are reading what their body language is saying.”
One example Strickland gave of body language changing the impression someone can give is how a smile can make someone appear more friendly or joyous. A power walk, in contrast, would make someone look like they have some kind of business or are upset about something.
After the exercise, Loera closed out by lecturing on the fear of public speaking.
“People really fear public speaking and think it is this really big thing,” Loera said. “We just assume it comes naturally, so it is reassuring to see that we are all going through it. The way you speak is the way we need to speak. You enrich the spaces you occupy by being different.”
Jordan Alcasas can be reached at jordan.alcasas@laverne.edu.
Jordan Alcasas is a sophomore journalism major with a concentration in print and online journalism. He is the news editor for the Campus Times, and previously served as social media editor and a staff writer.
