A fellow R.A. at Windsor had hosted a men's question and answer panel for her residents last year, and we turned the tables to offer men the chance to ask questions of our lady residents.

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Two weeks prior to the event, I advertised in our weekly newsletter that volunteers were needed for a question and answer panel about what women want. Five ladies volunteered, and we went over to a building at Cary, an all-male resident hall on campus, on the evening for which we planned the program. In addition to advertising in the men's building the week leading up to the event, the ladies went door to door the night of the program to invite residents. Root beer floats were served. As men came down to the program, they were handed slips of paper to write questions to be directed to the ladies on the panel. The questions were given to our M.C., Kevin Kay, the R.A. with whom I planned the event, and he posed the questions to the panel. The ladies were given the chance to answer the questions for the men, and when the questions ran out, we allowed the panel to ask questions of the male audience.

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The initial goals of the program were social; however, as the evening went on, it appeared as though not only were we allowing residents to break the ice by broaching topics that are sometimes viewed as taboo, but that we were also enabling the mature exchange of ideas, the dispelling of misconceptions, and the quelling of curiosities.

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Continuing on from this program, I'd like to hope that all those involved will be inspired to have the courage to have open conversations with their partners, or even friends of the opposite gender.

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I was very satified with how the program turned out. Twenty audience members seemed to be enough to generate enough questions for the panel, but not so many that we couldn't answer all of them in the time allotted. The girls who volunteered for the panel also handled the questions very maturely and were open with their honest opinions. While I hadn't screened for a specific variety of women for the panel, we had a nice spectrum of conservative to rather liberal women, so the men were able to receive the gamut of answers.

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The program could very easily be adapted to other campuses. Co-ed halls could very easily host this program as well. I could see all- male or all-female colleges benefitting greatly from this program, with the cooperation of men or women from a neighboring university.

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