Cultivating Wisdom on Campus and Community Through Deliberative Engagement

As a reaction to growing polarization and societal divisiveness, as well as concerns about intellectual bias and free speech, there has been a recent explosion of dialogue, debate, and civility efforts on our campuses. These efforts, tied to organizations such as the College Debates and Discourse Alliance, the Constructive Dialogue Institute, and the College Presidents for Civic Preparedness, have all formed and grown exponentially within the last decade. They focus on providing students with valuable and necessary experiences of engaging across difference, primarily through listening and nonjudgmental engagement. Although such efforts offer critical initial steps to build important skills and dispel the caricatures we often have of those with opposing views (as the excellent work of groups like More in Common and More Like Us has revealed), they are not sufficient. Such efforts too often lead to an “agree to disagree” conclusion that falls short of the skill set our students need to face our current societal challenges. They can function as overcorrections that glorify open-mindedness to the point that we cannot make important distinctions and judgments, undermining the rigor and excellence for which our institutions also strive.