Facilitating Political Discourse on Campus Over the past months, students have led the way in responding to the urgent crises the United States now faces. Students are volunteering at food banks, designing new medical technology, and advocating for a safe and equitable policy response to the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, they are organizing protests and advocacy campaigns to demand an end to police violence and systemic racism. This wave of civic engagement and participation by young people is an unprecedented phenomenon in recent history that presents an opportunity for institutions of higher education to help students more fully embrace their roles as individual actors in a democratic society. This Speech Spotlight will continue our exploration of different pathways for civic engagement on campus. We began this examination with our recent Engaging Student Voters and Supporting Student Activism issues, and continue with this installment on how colleges and universities can integrate opportunities for deliberate and meaningful political discussion into various aspects of campus life. “Political is not the Same as Partisan” Facilitating conversations that allow students to confront a diverse array of perspectives is an important component of developing a culture of civic participation on campus. At many of the most politically engaged colleges and universities around the country, students, faculty, and administrators actively engage in open discussion on pressing political issues—both inside and outside the classroom. In the Institute for Democracy and Higher Education’s Politics 365: Fostering Campus Climates for Student Political Learning & Engagement, IDHE Director Nancy Thomas and University of Chicago Professor of Political Science Margaret Brower find that “Political discussions were the most pervasive feature of the politically engaged institutions we visited.” They note that their case study of these engaged campuses revealed that “deliberation among socially diverse students has long-term impact—they are more engaged in the political process than their peers who did not experience deliberative practices.” Encouraging students to engage in political conversation and to debate relevant issues across diverse viewpoints is an important part of developing a culture of civic engagement on campus and helping students build lasting skills for and habits of democratic engagement. Creating a constructive environment for political conversation is not easy. As Professors Diana Hess and Paula McAvoy write in their book, The Political Classroom, “facilitating talks about controversial topics is full of pedagogical challenges,” including navigating students’ diverse backgrounds, the polarized political environment, and the fear of backlash. Colleges and universities, who have recently faced heavy criticism from those claiming they are too political or unwilling to accommodate conservative voices, may understandably be hesitant to encourage more political discussion. freespeechcenter.universityofcalifornia.edu
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