Written Feedback from Participants at 10/13 session
(Buddhism & Social Justice)

About 112 people attended the second session of the Social Justice and World Religions series
and 30 turned in written forms to UNIITE.

a. Of these, citing their sources of information re. the event,
4 said they learnt about the event from the St. Cloud Times
4 saw a flyer (3 at Atwood, 1 at Student Gov. Hall)
3 from Course Catalogue
4 from a friend
3 from their faith community
1 from St Cloud Unabridged
10 listed “Other” - Ethnic Studies
1 didn’t list any

b. 21 were attending a UNIITE event for the first time
8 had attended UNIITE events earlier
1 didn’t list any

c. On a scale of 1 to 10, how did participants rate the first session of the series?
4 gave the presentation a 9 or a 10
17 gave the presentation a 7 or 8
5 gave the presentation a 5 or 6
2 gave the presentation a 2
2 didn’t give the presentation any ratings

d. Remarks about the event:
i) What I liked:
“Many student’s showed up”
“Great attendance”
“The Dalai Llama video”
“Everything, very well planned”
“Question/answer segment”
“Excellent talk”
“Setup, speaker content”
“The connection between the personal and the social aspects of justice”
“Movie linked into speech well”
“The speaker seemed to be a reliable source of information on the topic”
“Very informative”
“The speaker went through all principles of Buddhists west”
“Interesting topic”
“Information presented smoothly”
“All sorts of people coming together to listen to a person’s perception (beliefs) perhaps different from theirs”
“Nice facility”
“Touching presentation”

ii) What could have been better:
Hard to understand
(Should have) more info/slides
(Should have) more enthusiasm
(Should have) more energy put into (speaker-wise) voice fluctuation
Microphone
Couldn’t hear well
A summary
Long introduction
(Would like) more “applicable” scenarios than theory
(Should have) spent less time on announcements
Speech was dull
Discussion on detailed laws should be lessen
Disrespectful interruption by one of the audience members
Couldn’t understand the speaker
Speaker read the entire speech
(Should) clarify at the beginning of session that any questions would be taken at the end of the presentation
“Lobster dinner”
More rounded aspect of Buddhism & Social justice
(Should) hand out brochures/articles about Buddhist teachings

e. Furthermore:
i) Further questions:
911 – the Truth movement (holes in the official story of 911 is one serious lack in public awareness)
Relationship between Money & Religion
Youth
Hands-on issues
What common folk can do – how we are sustained to act by faith
More on minorities/minority religions and their involvement in social justice
Paganism
How social justice is applied in world

ii) What should UNIITE address next?
The return of Goddess or great mother (Mother Nature, Astarte, St Mary)
Religions & politics
Mysticism
More real life examples put into speech
Hinduism