Higher Education

Higher education is an ideal setting for dialogue across differences. Colleges serve to foster the exchange of knowledge, critical thinking, analytical skills, and mindsets that promote collaboration and curiosity from one generation to another. College may be a student’s first meaningful opportunity to interact with people of varied backgrounds, values, experiences, and identities.

The National Week of Conversation (NWoC) aims to encourage and empower all schools to participate, and use this moment as a launchpad for generating “environments that support constructive conversations, and provide students with the necessary skills to engage with their diverse environment.” NWoC is an opportunity to engage faculty, students, and staff in constructive dialogues within and beyond college classrooms.

Ways to Partner:

Host or convene a dialogue, conversation, or deliberation in your classroom or on campus. You can use discussion guides and formats like these from BridgeUSA, National Issues Forums Institute (NIF), Living Room Conversations, or the Interactivity Foundation to help frame conversations for collaboration, productivity, and civility.
Send your students to participate in the annual National Week of Deliberation, a full week of online deliberative forums hosted by James Madison University. This event is fully geared toward connecting college students from different campuses together in deliberation on issues like climate change, immigration, opportunity and inequality. Each forum is 90 minutes long, facilitated by trained student facilitators, and is perfect for pairing with an assignment or as extra credit or as part of a student group meeting.

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