When I became chaplain at Lyon College in 2017, I inherited the annual Lyon College Peace Rally, a student-led event that brought together students, faculty, and the larger Batesville community. Starting in 2016, students have used the event to display peace and unity for our campus and larger community through poetry, speeches and community leadership.
This event came to life in the aftermath of gun violence, including, at the time, the Orlando Pulse shooting, the shooting of Dallas police officers, and the killings of Delrawn Small, Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. These national events weighed on the hearts of several students in leadership. As such, they wanted to create a space for the college and community to gather and name the pain and hurt, while also realizing the connections we hold as human beings.
The first Peace Rally came at the right time. Lyon College was also facing turmoil. From campus-wide issues relating to sexual orientation, to public displays of the Confederate flag, and the inclusion of our Black undergraduates in student leadership. There was tension and division. While students created this event and centered it around the larger social issue of gun violence, we also needed to claim and hold our community accountable in the ways we created division within ourselves.
The Peace Rally has taken many forms since its start in 2016. It has included rallies, guest speakers, documentary watch parties and community art pieces, among other things. Yet, we remain committed to addressing peace and the ways we can and should uphold peace in our global and local communities. The Peace Rally is also a time for us to acknowledge the ways we fall short and publicly commit to try and do better.
This past year, we lengthened our Peace Rally into Peace Week for our campus, culminating in the International Day of Peace. Using the theme “Cultivating a Culture of Peace,” the Student Life Office partnered with students to host events throughout the week to explore what it means to create a culture of peace within yourself and the community.
We examined peace in communal life, taking a look at how friendships and relationships at times are not peaceful. We then offered the space for participants to create notecards and messages of peace to share with roommates and teammates.
We explored peace in social settings, noting how social settings can create anxiety and tension, specifically in settings involving peer pressure and underage drinking at parties. Our Health and Wellness team created space for students to have conversations around how to have fun without feeling left out or excluded in social settings.
We explored peace in terms of our mental health, where our Counseling Center led students through meditation practices as a way to decrease stress and tension.
And we explored peace in relationships, looking at ways our community can help end dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking. We discussed how we can create a safe environment for all people to live and learn in peace.
Our goal in developing this week and the programs was to help students engage and explore how peace is present in many aspects of their lives. It was also designed to help students find ways they could cultivate peace in their individual lives and in the larger community.
I am not sure what our community will do in the future to explore peace and its presence in our lives, but I do know that it is a topic we will continue to explore, study, and work to achieve both individually and communally. I hope we continue to build upon the actions of those student leaders in 2016 — to promote peace and unity even in the chaos of the world around us.
