For some, a time for support

Portland State students walking between Smith Memorial Student Union and Cramer Hall Tuesday and Wednesday may have noticed some tables occupied by people listening to others’ problems.

Called “listening tables,” the space was set up in the South Park Blocks to allow students a place to express their opinions freely, according to Dr. Martha Balshem, special assistant to the president for diversity in the Office of Diversity and Equity.

The tables were organized by PSUnity, a segment of the Office of the President’s diversity initiative.Balshem said in light of how racially charged the presidential election has been, as well as how strongly people felt about the outcome of that election, the tables would be a good idea.

From Election Day onward, the tables were set up for several hours on Tuesday and Wednesday. “We had a lot of people stopping by on election day that were feeling anxious,” Balshem said. “The day after the election, there was a feeling of relief.”

She said she believed about 40 people stopped by the day after election.

“Even if they didn’t stop to talk,” she said, “a few students said it was nice to see us there.”

The tables were staffed by volunteers who have received intensive training in empathetic listening and allowing others to “get out their stories,” Balshem said.

The training is conducted by the National Coalition Building Institute, an international nonprofit organization working to eliminate racism and prejudice worldwide. The institute has affiliates on 60 college campuses nationwide.

The listening tables have been set up twice before in the past, Balshem said. Both times, the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform, a nonprofit anti-abortion group, had set up displays with graphic images of aborted fetuses, death and violence.

Balshem said the displays sparked protests from students, and PSUnity set up a booth near the displays to listen to anybody who was upset by the images. This was the first time the tables have been used for a national event such as an election, she said.

Balshem also stressed that the tables are there more to keep lines of communication open than to provide advice or counseling of any kind. “We need to be able to communicate openly if we’re going to progress as a society,” she said.

Students need to have a place to express their idea and opinions, Balshem said.

“We’re socialized into not talking about certain things, like ethnicity and race and gender,” she said. “What [PSUnity is] trying to do is contribute to making Portland State a place where people experience the type of open communication that feeds into the improvement of society.”

Balshem said she hoped that the listening tables, rather than being an end unto themselves, would serve as a springboard to anybody interested in any of the many diversity-training workshops that PSUnity offers.

“I hope that the excitement of this post-election period has engendered a lot of interest in having open conversations,” she said.