I was first introduced to circle processes by a primarily Mennonite accessible health care center in Goshen, Ind. Truthfully, it felt awkward. I’d never met most of the people in the circle, and I felt like I had little to contribute in light of their stories. The circle process has Indigenious roots and has been a central aspect of my experience in EMU’s Peacebuilding program. 

Physically, circles are exactly as they sound: a group of any number of participants (ideally 5-15) seated in a circle. The most important aspect, in my experience, of circles is their ability to equalize people. Of course, power dynamics are always at play, but circles attempt to minimize their effects and create a space where everyone’s voices are heard and valued equally. 

Even starting out at EMU, these processes were incorporated into most of my Peacebuilding and Development (PXD) courses, and I’ve grown a lot in realizing their value since my time in Goshen. This being the case, as a student, I expected circle processes to be central to how EMU transforms their own harms, on and off campus. It seems like when a student does something against the institution of EMU, they’re often pulled into this process in an attempt to create more restorative justice on campus. 

However, when students bring up harms against them, done by the institution of EMU or EMU administrators, no such process is held. In all my time at EMU, I’ve met several students who’ve felt harmed by EMU’s policies and/or actions, including myself. What would our campus look like if everytime something like this happened (for instance, the reclaiming of the “BSA house” by residence life, covered in Vol. 68, No. 11 of The Weather Vane), adequate circle processes were held? Would we be able to live up to the standards we’ve set for ourselves?

For this to happen successfully, I believe there would have to be at least as many students as there are administrators, faculty, and staff, and the person leading the circle would have to have minimal bias (i.e. not just an administrator). The ideal situation, in my opinion, would be to have to include co-facilitators, one being a faculty member and one being one of EMU’s student Peer Conflict and Restorative Justice Facilitators. 

If EMU truly wants to live up its core values of “Community” and “Peacemaking,” 

there must be an accessible way for students to engage in these processes with the people in charge of our university.