Most people love coffee but not everyone loves having uncomfortable conversations.

That’s why Troy University‘s Office of Civic Engagement hosts Coffee and Conversations, a program designed to help students discuss difficult topics.

“We feel that these are very important conversations for us to have,” says Coordinator of Civic Engagement Lauren Cochran. “About how we treat one another and how we accept one another and so we’re really excited to be doing this for our second year.”

Tuesday’s conversation was centered around the topic of bias.

Students were challenged in various ways to recognize any unconscious bias that they may have and were encouraged to speak about the reasons for that bias and where it can originate from.

“This is the first installment of three of the structures of bias,” says Team Leader Chauntina Whittle. “The next one will be discussing about the representational bias and then institutional bias. So we want to provide an opportunity for students to have an open space for them to really congregate and collaborate about bias and what they believe and challenge themselves on some of their values that they may have.”

For the full story watch Simon’s report.