Recap: Mosaic Conference 2022

On Feb. 26, Residential Life and Housing partnered with the Student Development Office and the Office of Racial and Ethnic Relations to host the first-ever Mosaic Conference.

Megan Barrett, an area coordinator in Residential Life and Housing, brought the idea of the Mosaic Conference to Director of Racial and Ethnic Relations Gloria Scott-Richmond. Together, they came up with a proposal for the conference, with the purpose of creating a space of engagement for more areas of the Lee community.

“The mission of the mosaic conference is to create a brave and safe space for students to gain and grow in skills for constructive dialogue, racial identity development and neighborly love,” said Barrett. 

Barrett said the goal of the conference was to continue the talk of reconciliation and create “hospitable environments” for challenging conversations about racial and ethnic justice.

“They can implement restorative and practical transformation to see justice actualized in the local and global community. So, the conference is definitely about racial reconciliation, but it's broadly just more about justice,” said Barrett.

Current students, including the Imago Dei team, served as breakout room leaders during the conference. The Evangelistic Singers performed during the conference, and diversity clubs and businesses provided more information for student engagement. With around 100 people in attendance, leaders hoped to continue the conversation and reach more students at Lee.

“I don't think that all the reconciling will be complete until Jesus comes [and] calls for us, but that doesn't mean that we should stop it,” said Richmond. 

Andy Vick, a residential assistant for B. L. Hicks Hall, was a breakout room speaker for the conference. Vick’s room focused on the role of allyship. Vick said his experience as an RA, and being involved in the Residential Life series Be the Bridge, helped him feel prepared to speak on this topic thoroughly. 

“We're expecting to get people from lots of different ranges of racial identity development, awareness and involvement in racial justice and reconciliation," said Vick.

The conference is one of many more events to come on campus with the purpose of initiating dialogue to bring about change. Barrett said students have reached out after the event, encouraging new conversations regarding ethnic and racial reconciliation and justice. 

“Hopefully, these conversations do continue outside of the conference and that people are able to put some of these things into action, no matter how small it is because that change starts sometimes on that micro-level that zooms out to that macro-level,” said Barrett. 

In the future, the Mosaic Conference will be continually hosted by and planned in collaboration with Residential Life and Housing support.

“My prayer is that we do continue to have these conversations,” said Richmond. “Not only because we have new people every semester, but that the world would see an institution that's not scared to reconcile, not scared to have an uncomfortable conversation, not scared to have an open conversation. Not just behind closed doors, because the world is watching.”

For more information about future events from Residential Life and Housing or the Office of Racial and Ethnic Relations, check out their Instagram pages.