College and university campuses have been bombarded with protests since last fall, plunging many leaders into difficult conversations surrounding free speech and safety. In an era of political polarization, higher education leaders everywhere have fortified civil dialogue initiatives on campus ahead of another hotly debated event: the U.S. presidential election.
“This conversation about how we support discourse has been something that we’ve been talking about since last fall,” says Vernese Edghill-Walden, vice president for equity and inclusive excellence at Bucknell University. “It’s something that we can’t just start thinking about now.”
Elon University’s Council on Civic Engagement, founded 15 years ago, has developed a series of events and activities leading up to and following Election Day. Programming covers a variety of topics, such as voter registration, the flow of money in politics and lobbying and mental health practices amid an emotional election season.
“We’re not born knowing how to navigate dialogue in these tough situations,” says Connie Ledoux Book, president of Elon. “Just like riding a bicycle, it has to be taught and learned. And it is, in my belief, the responsibility of colleges to do that.”
Elon is a member of the Council of Independent Colleges, which recently acquired the Campus Free Expression Project. Fueled by a $180,000 grant from the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, the 700-member association published a series of guidelines for president, trustees, faculty and student affairs leaders on how they can facilitate a welcoming environment for civil dialogue.
Green colleges: Who’s No. 1 nine years in a row?
Baylor University President Linda Livingstone, who served as a task force member on the project, made civil dialogue one of four pillars in the strategic plan the institution released in September. “We should care for, respect and love everyone,” she says. “How do we engage in conversation and dialogue on difficult issues that we might disagree strongly on, but do it in ways that are respectful of one another, that lead us to listen, to learn and to try to seek understanding?”
Baylor mandates civic education within its core curriculum, and Livingstone has encouraged faculty to relate this fall semester coursework to the November election. “One of the most challenging things to do right now, especially for young people, is helping students find accurate information,” the seven-year president says. “Mainstream media is not always as reliable as you would like, but social media is even more challenging.”
The university also trains students, faculty and staff to become dialogue facilitators through its Bridging the Gap program, a grant-funded curriculum through Interfaith America. In this program, participants are trained in active listening and refrain from interjecting or making facial expressions while someone expresses themselves. This training parallels that of Bucknell faculty and staff who lead its Dignity & Dialogue Circles, a civil dialogue initiative informed by restorative and peacemaking practices derived from indigenous communities throughout New Zealand.
Corralling student buy-in
It’s vital for leaders interested in boosting students’ civic-mindedness to seek out connection points with student organizations to maximize impact, Bucknell’s Edghill-Walden says. Otherwise, those who may benefit the most may never be reached. “We always feel like we are preaching to the choir. Those open to this work are the people who typically will come first.
“We should not assume that the students are going to come to us for help,” she adds. “They’re not going to come knock on our door and say, ‘Hey, can you facilitate a [Dignity & Dialogue] circle for us? But we know that students are in residence halls, they’re in student clubs, they’re in Greek life.”
At Elon, students helped the university draft a statement on freedom of expression. They also utilized student coordinators volunteering for a university-sponsored civic engagement group to inform the campus community about new state voting laws, Stateline reports. In 2022, the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge recognized Elon for the quality of its nonpartisan democratic engagement action plan.
Not even these efforts can fully safeguard a campus, Livingstone admits. Baylor, as well as Elon and Bucknell, have set up programming following Election Day to help students vent their frustration after one presidential nominee is selected—and one denied.
“Certainly in the aftermath of the election, there may be ongoing issues, but there are always going to be issues in our country and our world that are controversial, that are difficult,” Livingstone says. “We have to continue to help our students know how to deal with them.”