Preparedness for civic engagement and the ability to engage in civil discourse is a deep challenge for open societies across the globe as well as for our college and university campuses. All of education, including higher education, need to help cultivate the skills and capabilities of constructive dialogue, active listening, respectful debate, openness to different viewpoints, negotiation, and collective problem solving. Students are arriving on campus not knowing how to talk to each other, especially those with different viewpoints, and we cannot afford to allow them to leave campus without having learned that critical set of skills.

Society today is deeply nuanced, fractured and polarizing. Today's students need practice engaging in the difficult and uncomfortable work of confronting divergent perspectives and even misinformation. Higher education is uniquely positioned to help students learn and leverage civil discourse to build bridges of understanding. This work is challenging, but it is also essential to pursuing peace, protecting democracy, and producing informed, global citizens.

There is no bigger issue that exists than the growing divisiveness undermining freedom and equality everywhere. It is harder and harder to participate in the public square. Teaching the skills to address this challenge aligns with our mission of preparing our students to make meaningful change in the world.

In and outside the classroom, the free and open and honest exchange of ideas is imperative. Our students, and we in the faculty, administration, and staff, must seize upon this time to promote freedom of thought and expression, to embrace challenges to our assumptions, and to be exemplars of civil discourse, even with views we doubt or oppose.

It's absolutely critical that universities like UW-Madison train our students to be thoughtful, productive, and engaged citizens—our graduates must be able to assess complex information, think critically, and engage productively with those who have different viewpoints, identities and life experiences.

In this time, it’s crucial that we do more than just bring people together to share the same space. We will double-down on the importance of a thriving, safe and welcoming community for everyone at Whitman. And we will make the most of the extraordinary opportunity for connection and face-to-face learning on a diverse and international campus. We will elevate the importance of constructive civil discourse, where honest conversation from different points of view is valued and leads to deeper understanding and creative collaboration.

The ability to have a group of committed presidents with the expertise at the Institute for Citizens & Scholars—it’s the work that Wellesley wanted to engage in. There is no established or validated path in this work, so we’re all navigating together and that’s very powerful.

The function of democracy and the function of higher education have these things in common: their viability and integrity require that participants actively listen to and collaborate with others who see the world differently, they require that participants genuinely respect the dignity and freedom of thought of others, and they require that participants value the free exchange of ideas in pursuit of common objectives.

Universities must embrace thought pluralism. For higher ed and our society, it is as vital as freedom of inquiry and freedom of expression. If we silence dissension on our college campuses, we are not serving our students and, worse, we may fail to provide them with the tools and skills the American public expects them to graduate with.

The fundamental idea is to challenge yourself—even if that means you will not always be comfortable. Being open to changing your mind, having the ability to hone your arguments, and thinking differently from multiple perspectives: these are essential skills and tools of higher education. It's imperative for leaders in higher education to do all we can to promote dialogue across differences, and that's why I'm so excited to be part of this coalition.