Fostering Pluralism in Higher Education: A Playbook for Senior Leaders
A PLAYBOOK FOR SENIOR LEADERS
ONE: Model Pluralism in How You Lead
TWO: Speak Up for Pluralism
THREE: Take an Asset-Based Approach
FOUR: Form a Pluralism Working Group or Committee
FIVE: Create a Pluralism Strategic Plan to Integrate Efforts and Commit to Pluralism for the Long Term
SIX: Align Your Work with Guiding Documents
SEVEN: Cast a Vision…and Delegate
EIGHT: Connect Pluralism to Recruitment and Retention
NINE: Dedicate Resources and Build Capacity
TEN: Find Partners to Help Measure Impact
Acknowledgements
Throughout the process of writing this playbook, we were extremely fortunate to have thoughtful campus partners and colleagues willing to provide direction, feedback, and affirmation on the project. From our dinner guests in Chicago at the 2024 Interfaith Leadership Summit to our colleagues and partners on many other campuses across the country, we were fortunate to have many great minds give constructive feedback on this playbook. Many thanks to those partners: Anna Branch (Senior Vice President for Equity and Professor of Sociology, Rutgers University); Melissa Carter (Senior Director, Center for Global and Spiritual Life, and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Public Service, New York University); Joan Collier (Assistant Vice President for Learning and Engagement, Rutgers University); Melissa Gilbert (Dean of Student Engagement, Otterbein University); Sarah Igo (Andrew Jackson Professor of History and Faculty Director of Dialogue Vanderbilt, Vanderbilt University); Brian Konkol (Vice President and Dean of Hendricks Chapel, and Professor of Practice, Syracuse University) Beth Lesen (Vice President of Student Affairs and Enrollment Management, California State
University, Long Beach); Ellen Maccarone (Vice President for Mission Integration and Associate Professor of Philosophy, Gonzaga University); Kevin Railey (Provost, St. John Fisher University); Beverly Sanford (Executive Vice President and Chief of Programs and Fellowships, Institute for Citizens & Scholars); Liz Tovar (Director of Strategic Partnerships, Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost, University of Iowa); Kevin Villegas (Dean of Intercultural Engagement & Division of Student Life Initiatives, Baylor University); Christine Winston (Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Institute for Citizens & Scholars). We also extend our gratitude to all the campuses doing the excellent work featured in the playbook.
Finally, we are grateful to our Interfaith America colleagues who read and suggested edits, connected us to featured campuses, and served as invaluable thought partners throughout: Randy Craig, Mary Ellen Giess, Tina Grace, Todd Green, Carr Harkrader, Joey Haynes, Connie Meyer, Eboo Patel, Rebecca Russo, Mike Whitenton, and Homayra Ziad.
Introduction
As both polarization and prejudice are on the rise in the United States, campuses are uniquely positioned to champion an alternative vision: universities as exemplars of pluralism, characterized by respect for diverse identities and ideologies, relationships across lines of deep difference, and cooperation on matters of shared concern.1 Pluralism opens the door for universities to become laboratories for cooperation across disagreement, equipping students to become leaders who can thrive in a diverse and polarized nation.
This playbook is intended as a practical guide for senior campus leaders seeking to foster a culture of pluralism on their campuses. Backed by two decades of work and research on pluralism in higher education, we identify four pluralism practices as levers of sustainable change on campus: institutional leadership, capacity building, curriculum and scholarship, and co-curricular engagement. We begin with a high-level overview of our understanding of the role of pluralism in American democracy and higher education, outline the pluralism practices, offer examples of the practices in action in diverse institutional contexts, and include questions for application, tools, and strategies for senior leaders and administrators ready to take the next steps on their campuses.
The Long Tradition of Pluralism in America
Pluralism is not a new idea. It is one of the most essential promises of American democracy. From the founding of the republic, when the First Amendment enshrined freedom of religion alongside other freedoms, through waves of immigration and the rise of cultural pluralism in the early 20th century, American thinkers across the history of our country such as James Madison, Samuel Johnson, Jane Addams, and Alain Locke believed in a country where people with different identities could coexist and collaborate without sacrificing their uniqueness.2 In direct response to rigid social hierarchies, where assimilation into shared American values and culture was believed to erase those deemed inferior, and in rejection of the dominant “melting-pot” metaphor, thinkers such as Horace Kallen promoted pluralism: the idea of the United States as a “symphony of civilizations” that valued each group’s distinct “timbre” in the American ensemble.3
Universities have long been key venues for this experiment within America, places where different groups come together to debate and shape public civic life. The Civil Rights Movement took pluralism
further, powered by multiracial, interfaith coalitions, often led by students and faculty, who demanded the country live up to the ideals of equality and fairness written in the Constitution.4 In more recent decades, especially after 9/11, universities across the country renewed their commitment to pluralism with interfaith programs, recognizing that bridging deep differences is not only essential for social harmony, but also for democratic resilience.5
Pluralism is a thread woven throughout American civic life. As campuses grapple with extreme polarization, pluralism offers a practical, principled, and tested framework for engaging across lines of difference. When students learn to work side by side with those with whom they disagree, building trust and leading together, they are participating in American democracy. A pluralistic campus does not ask all its participants to agree but rather prepares everyone to lead across difference with dignity and respect.
For more on the foundational readings that inform our understanding of pluralism, see the Interfaith America Pluralism Texts Bibliography cited below.6
2 O’Neill, “Tempered Dreams: Alaine Locke as Pluralist and Pragmatist.”
3 Hallet, “The Lessons of Cassandra: Classical Learning and the Classical Legacy of Jane Addams and Hull House”; Johnson, The Patriot, 1774, pp. 335-42; Kallen, “Democracy Versus the Melting Pot”; Locke, “Pluralism and Ideological Peace”; Madison, “Federalist No. 10.”
4 Rosenbaum, “Clergy in the Civil Rights Movement: Introductory Essay.”
5 Banks, “9/11 Became a Catalyst for Interfaith Relations and Cooperation.”
While many campuses have engaged in piecemeal efforts to promote pluralism, we recommend a more comprehensive approach: a campuswide commitment to pluralism. On a pluralistic campus, students, faculty, and staff with diverse ideologies and backgrounds learn from each other, collaborate on matters of shared concern, and develop bridgebuilding and leadership skills that prepare them to be civic and professional leaders beyond the campus gates. A pluralistic campus community does not seek uniformity of thought—its members expect to disagree on certain issues while working together on others. This community can draw on trust, relationships, and skills when faced with conflict and hot-button issues. The campus experience expands the ability for complex thinking and deepens the capacity for empathy, encouraging the community to approach disagreements with curiosity and respect.
As the late Catholic philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre said, “a central purpose of higher education [is] to initiate students into conflict… only from the university can the wider society learn how to conduct its own debates, practical or theoretical, in a rationally defensible way.”7
For higher education to play a role in shifting discourse in broader society, pluralism needs to be infused into the ethos of college campuses, from admissions to student leader training, from new faculty orientation to the core curriculum. When a university president shakes the hand of a graduating student, they should be confident that the graduate is equipped to be a bridgebuilder who can lead effectively in diverse civic and professional settings, including in the most contentious and challenging situations.8
7 Kupperman and Macintyre, “Three Rival Versions of Moral Enquiry. Encyclopaedia, Genealogy, and Tradition.”
8 Patel, “Perspective: How Higher Ed Can Help Resolve Our Tribal Conflicts.”
Unpacking the Language of Pluralism
As indicated above, Interfaith America uses the language of pluralism because we understand within that term a long, particularly American intellectual and applied tradition that harkens back to America’s founding and which has served as a meaningful tool for social change and building social cohesion throughout America’s history.
At the same time, we recognize that this language may not resonate for all campus contexts; as the broader bridgebuilding field grows, there are many distinct but overlapping concepts and approaches being used on campus. Civil discourse and civic engagement, dialogue across difference, constructive dialogue, free expression, viewpoint diversity, and other terms all have gained traction within different higher education contexts.9 What we understand to be particular about pluralism is a commitment that includes both constructive conversations across deep differences and meaningful collaboration for shared civic goods. We encourage campuses—with care and intentionality—to use the language that works in their context. From our campus partners in blue state or progressive campus environments, we sometimes hear that “pluralism” is seen as incompatible with deep activist traditions
or as anti-diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI); from our campus partners in red states or more conservative campus environments, we sometimes hear that “pluralism” is a cover for stealth progressivism or moral relativism. While pluralism is none of these things in reality, if the work is focused collaboration across difference, and fosters respect, relationships, and cooperation, then we see it in alignment with pluralism, even if that particular language is not a fit.
Another concern we often hear from campus partners is that students do not perceive pluralism to be compatible with their deepest commitments. Students worry they have to “give something up” to participate in bridgebuilding work, whether that be deep activist commitments or particular exclusivist values or theological commitments. On the contrary, we expect those participating in pluralism efforts will often have conflicting convictions around which they may feel strongly. Pluralism should offer a space to engage with those convictions with deep curiosity about other perspectives and a sense of collaboration even amid deep disagreement on other issues. We do not think it is inconsistent with pluralism for one to be involved in a protest on a Monday—whether
9 For a helpful breakdown of some of the most prevalent terms, see “Building Cultures of Constructive Dialogue” from the Constructive Dialogue Istitute (see Aviles, Duong, and Duong, “Building Cultures of Constructive Dialogue: A Blueprint for Campus Leaders | Constructive Dialogue Institute.”)
it be for racial justice or pro-life causes—and engaged in a dialogue and collaborative service project on a Tuesday. We are, however, hopeful that the practice of pluralism may change the heat and discourse around protest and activism that many campuses have faced over the past several years.
A second set of concerns we hear is about the relationship between pluralism and DEI.10 To be clear, while we see DEI efforts and pluralism efforts as engaging many of the same core questions of diversity, identity, and community, we understand the two approaches to have different—though sometimes overlapping— approaches and goals. Questions of power and privilege are not central to pluralism in the same way that they are to DEI efforts, because pluralism assumes that participants may have differing views and frameworks for understanding these social dynamics. Pluralism does not negate the
way these frameworks are central to how some participants view the world, but it does invite participants into conversation with those who may disagree with those frameworks in an effort to build relationships and cooperation across often deep divides, while also acknowledging disagreement exists.
Finally, when we speak of “bridgebuilding,” we are referring to intentionally coming together across differences to respect diverse identities and divergent ideologies, cultivate mutually inspiring relationships, and cooperate to take shared action for the common good. Bridgebuilding is both a choice in any given moment and a lifelong process of continuing to learn. Over the last decade or so there has been a much-needed growth of what many identify as the “bridgebuilding field” through non-profit organizations, higher education, and the work of practitioners in diverse civic roles.11
The Role of Senior Leaders in Fostering Pluralism on Campus
Pluralistic campuses will have a commitment to engaging all students in this work, prioritizing a variety of intervention points across the campus experience. These cross-campus efforts are often sustained and have more lasting impact when elevated and actively supported by institutional leadership, including a presidential commitment to pluralism. Such a commitment involves financial resources, dedicated staffing, and a thoughtful communications strategy. It promises all stakeholders that the principles of pluralism will be upheld and sets high but attainable expectations for how people within the campus community engage across divides.
Senior leaders can elevate pluralism efforts beyond one-time events, programs, or individual courses. By normalizing an institution-wide vision for pluralism, leaders not only help reduce conflict but also ensure that when conflict arises—which a pluralistic institution recognizes that it inevitably will—it is approached in ways that strengthen the community and promote deeper understanding, This playbook is designed to give higher education
leaders a toolkit to champion a commitment to pluralism across all areas of campus life.
As college campuses are some of the most religiously, racially, and ideologically diverse places in the country, senior leaders set the tone for how the lines of difference affect all participants. Their role is both administrative and civic. When presidents, provosts, and other senior leaders create space for honest dialogue, model respect across disagreement, and invest in relationships that stretch beyond comfort zones, they set the tone for a culture to be shaped where people stay at the table even when they do not agree. When students experience real belonging and feel that their voices are invited into the conversation, they succeed; pluralism is the framework that makes this possible. When senior leaders lead with that vision, they are not only advancing the mission of higher education but directly contributing to student retention and long-term success in a civil democracy. We outline more practical ways of ensuring this on campuses in our “Tools” section below.
How to Use This Playbook
For the purposes of this playbook, a senior leader is an individual who holds significant influence over institutional policies, culture, and strategic decision-making. How senior leaders might use this playbook depends on their positionality. Presidents, cabinet members, and other executive-level leaders may find it most helpful for framing the connection between pluralism and core institutional values or priorities like recruitment and retention. The examples and theoretical framing will be useful for those making a case to governing boards and other external stakeholders like parents or alumni for the value of pluralism and its centrality to higher education’s purpose. It can also serve as a “next step” tool for senior leaders ready to hand off and delegate the work of fostering cooperation across difference on campus.
Senior leaders whose roles will focus more on implementation can use the playbook as a strategic roadmap and toolkit, drawing from relevant campus examples and using the tools and guiding questions to create a strategic plan for campus pluralism and to empower those on their teams.
Each practice in this playbook is flexible and adaptable to a variety of campus contexts and can be scaled or modified to meet the unique needs of each institution. Each practice is also followed by questions for consideration and next steps to inspire those looking to prioritize pluralism on their own campuses. This approach ensures that no matter the location, size, or mission of each campus, administrators will find practical and relevant strategies to integrate pluralism into their community.
Campus Pluralism Practices
The following practices are meant to be integrated and mutually reinforcing:
Institutional Leadership
Senior leadership actively endorses and champions pluralism initiatives, which sets the tone for a campus-wide culture of mutual respect in the face of difference and disagreement, relationships across lines of difference, and cooperation on matters of shared concern:
● Public and financial commitment from leadership (president, cabinet, trustees, etc.)
● Comprehensive internal and external communications strategy
● Alignment with institutional mission, vision, and values
● Dedicated staffing and institutional home(s) to manage pluralism initiatives
● Policies that emphasize pluralism (such as relationship building, respect, and cooperation
Capacity Building
Early and consistent pluralism framing and skill-building for faculty, staff, and students sets expectations for constructive engagement across difference:
● Pluralism training in student orientation and onboarding for faculty and staff
● Embedding pluralism in training for student, faculty, and staff leaders who influence campus culture
● In-depth bridgebuilding skills development opportunities for students, faculty, and staff
● Ongoing assessment of pluralism work and impact on campus climate
Curriculum and Scholarship
Incorporating pluralism into academic curricula ensures that students engage with the concept through multiple disciplines, deepening their understanding and application of pluralism in their fields of study:
● Courses offered across disciplines on the theory and application of pluralism
● Course sequences on pluralism (majors, minors, certificate programs)
● Faculty research on pluralism supported and recognized by the institution
Co-Curricular Engagement
Ongoing pluralism programming and student fellowships provide leadership opportunities and reinforce institutions’ commitment to pluralism beyond the classroom:
● Student fellowship for pluralism supported by institutional leadership
● Ongoing pluralism programming, including regular events, discussions, and initiatives, led by students, faculty, and staff
Why the Pluralism Practices: Background and Approach
At Interfaith America, our long-standing focus on interfaith engagement—which involves building relationships and finding shared values across irreconcilable differences— has positioned us to speak to the broader concept of pluralism. Our commitment to fostering understanding across religious and secular lines has taught us that the same principles—creating spaces where individuals explore their beliefs and values together and engage in mutual respect and cooperation across deep differences—are essential to promoting pluralism broadly in higher education.
Research, including findings from the IDEALS study, consistently shows that meaningful engagement across difference strengthens campus communities and reduces prejudice and polarization.12 This research highlights the importance of ensuring that every student has at least one curricular or two co-curricular experiences focused on interfaith engagement or pluralism. These touchpoints are transformative for student outcomes, cultivating the skills and mindsets necessary for leadership in a diverse society. Assessment of pluralism in higher education is nascent, but our expectation is that similar findings will emerge, and that the same levers of change that impacted students’ knowledge, attitudes, and behavior around religious diversity can be applied to bridging other differences and creating a broader culture of pluralism.
The Pluralism Practices: Campus Examples
In the following section, we give examples of the pluralism practices in diverse institutional contexts, accompanied by questions for leaders to consider when applying and implementing these at their own institutions. Since we understand the pluralism practices to be mutually reinforcing and interconnected—for instance, strong institutional leadership fosters capacity building, which, in turn, enhances faculty’s ability to teach pluralism or students’ ability to incorporate it into their programs—our examples often overlap and illustrate multiple practices at once.
Institutional Leadership
Ensuring that pluralism efforts are long-lasting and wide-reaching requires investment and commitment from institutional leaders, such as the president or chancellor, senior administrators, and even governing boards. For many campuses, Institutional Leadership can support pluralism through:
● Public and financial commitment from leadership (such as the president, cabinet, trustees, etc.)
● High-level public commitment in an opening convocation to incoming students
● Comprehensive internal and external communications strategy to underscore why pluralism matters to the institution
● Pluralism efforts that align with institutional mission, vision, and values
● Dedicated staffing and institutional home(s) to manage pluralism initiatives
● Policies that reflect pluralism (respect, relate, cooperate)
Examples of Institutional Leadership in Action
California State University, Long Beach:
Jane Conoley, recently retired President of California State University of Long Beach has championed the Beach Pluralism Project, launched in 2024, providing both public endorsement and financial support to ensure its integration into the university’s mission and operations. Her leadership has been pivotal in embedding pluralism as a core institutional value, emphasizing its importance through strategic messaging and resource allocation. Central to the initiative is the eponymous Conoley Fellowship Program, which provides $5,000 stipends to undergraduate fellows who engage in a yearlong study of pluralism. Fellows participate in a two-course sequence, pluralism-related events, and experiential learning opportunities, reflecting the program’s comprehensive approach to pluralism education.13
Claremont McKenna College:
Institutional leadership drives Claremont McKenna College’s commitment to pluralism through the creation and sustained support of the CARE Center (Civility, Access, Resources, and Expression). Several senior leaders, including the President of Claremont McKenna, Hiram Chodosh, and the Vice President for Dialogue and Diversity, have played pivotal roles in ensuring the CARE Center is not only well-resourced but also strategically aligned with the college’s broader mission, emphasizing the virtue of free speech on campus.14 Under this leadership, the CARE Center serves as a hub for fostering civil dialogue, openness, and intellectual pluralism across campus. The CARE Center operates as an extension of CMC’s institutional mission to embed pluralism into every aspect of campus life, from hosting workshops on academic freedom and diversifying course content to supporting underrepresented students.15 In addition, CMC’s uses its foundational commitments of Freedom of Expression, Viewpoint Diversity, and Constructive Dialogue as reinforcement for its work on pluralism.16 CMC cites its Statement in Support of Institutional Nonpartisanship as a fundamental backing of its students and staff’s engagement with pluralism on campus.17
13 California State University, Long Beach, “What Is the Beach Pluralism Project?”
14 Claremont McKenna College, “CARE Center Staff”; Soave, “Claremont McKenna college: ‘We Do Not Madate Trigger Warnings.’ Period.”
In his book, Safe Enough Spaces: A Pragmatist’s Approach to Inclusion, Free Speech, and Political Correctness on College Campuses, President Michael S. Roth advocates for creating environments that are “safe enough” to encourage open dialogue while exposing students to diverse and challenging ideas. He draws from psychologist D.W. Winnicott’s concept of the “good enough” parent, suggesting that campuses should promote a basic sense of inclusion and respect, enabling students to learn and grow by experiencing and engaging with differing perspectives.18 This philosophy is reflected in Wesleyan’s initiatives that balance the need for safe spaces with the imperative of exposing students to diverse viewpoints. By promoting a campus culture that values both free expression and inclusivity, President Roth exemplifies how institutional leadership can navigate the complexities of fostering pluralism in higher education. His approach underscores the importance of preparing students to engage thoughtfully and respectfully with a variety of perspectives, thereby enriching their educational experience and contributing to a more pluralistic society.
FlintHills.photos
Vanderbilt University:
Vanderbilt‘s Chancellor Daniel Diermeier has consistently emphasized the importance of unity, mutual respect, and civil discourse as integral to the university’s identity. In his message to the Vanderbilt community on August 22, 2024, he stated:
“To encourage and support respectful and constructive dialogue and debate, we are expanding our Dialogue Vanderbilt initiative. We will host more speakers with differing viewpoints, offer more opportunities for you to engage in structured conversation and debate, and provide more support for having challenging conversations.”19
This direct endorsement underscores Diemeier’s role in shaping Vanderbilt as a leader in pluralism and civil discourse. The principles underlying the Dialogue Vanderbilt program are echoed in the student handbook, which urges community members to demonstrate what is possible when a diverse community comes together to achieve meaningful goals.20
Dialogue Vanderbilt is strategically positioned within the university’s structure, reporting directly to the Office of the Provost to ensure its institutional impact. Its initiatives include the Vanderbilt Project on Unity and American Democracy, the Open Dialogue Visiting Fellows Program, the Civic Discourse Lab and the Dialogue Vanderbilt Student Advisory Board, all of which provide platforms for staff, faculty and students to engage with complex issues in a constructive manner.21
American University:
American University’s president Jonathan R. Alger marked his inauguration by giving a speech making clear his deep commitment to civic pluralism as a core guiding principle for American University’s future. He championed radical hospitality, inclusive excellence, and civil discourse, asserting that welcoming diverse backgrounds, engaging in respectful dialogue across differences, and fostering a community of mutual learning and mentorship are essential to strengthening both the university and democracy itself.
“The dream of civic pluralism starts with the premise that inclusion and excellence are not competing concepts, they go hand in hand! We are a better and stronger university as we welcome individuals from all backgrounds. We will not back away from this fundamental commitment to inclusion because we know it enhances the learning environment for everyone.22
Harvard University:
In 2024, following a year marked by heightened polarization on campuses nationwide, Harvard introduced a new application question asking prospective students to reflect on a time they strongly disagreed with someone and how they handled the disagreement.23 This initiative, supported by senior university leadership, works to communicate to prospective students that Harvard is a place where they will be expected to constructively work across differences. By requiring applicants to articulate their experiences with disagreement, the university is also prioritizing skills such as empathy, active listening, and constructive engagement; these are critical attributes for their incoming students. The inclusion of this question reflects Harvard’s broader mission “to educate the citizens and citizen-leaders for our society,” and to do it through their commitment to help students engage with others who “come from different walks of life and evolving identities,” recognizing that “intellectual transformation is deepened and conditions for social transformation are created.”
22 Alger, “Inauguration Address.”
23 Goncalves and Josephy, “After Tumultuous
Institutional Leadership Questions to Consider
1. Which leaders on your campus are already supportive of pluralism?
2. Who on your campus should you talk to or convene as thought partners in championing pluralism at the leadership level?
3. What other initiatives or priorities have gained widespread traction and buy-in on your campus? How did that buy-in occur, and what can you learn from that as you seek to elevate pluralism?
4. What policies, communications, and institutional documents (e.g., mission, vision, values) exist on your campus to support pluralism?
5. What financial resources exist—or can be pursued—that could support this work on your campus?
Institutional Leadership Next Steps
1. Convene a working group of senior stakeholders to develop an institutional vision for pluralism and map existing assets that could support pluralism or already do
2. Meet with advancement and communications colleagues to discuss fundraising and messaging for pluralism efforts
3. Conduct a policy review to explore how existing campus policies deal with conflict, protest, and free expression. Where appropriate, consider how policies can foster respect for deep disagreement, relationships across lines of difference, and opportunities for community-building.
Capacity Building
Capacity building ensures that students, faculty, and staff are equipped to engage proactively and constructively across lines of difference and strengthen or rebuild community in moments of conflict. Integrating pluralism into widely attended programs for students, such as first-year orientation, ensures that bridgebuilding opportunities reach the entire student body, not just those who opt into specific leadership roles or activities. Early exposure to pluralism during orientation and first-year programs establishes a foundation for dialogue and collaboration, while ongoing training reinforces skills such as deep listening, storytelling, and the ability to identify shared values across difference.
For faculty and staff, pluralism and bridgebuilding can be a part of the framing offered during employee onboarding, laying the groundwork for a collegial atmosphere marked by cooperation across difference. Additionally, professional development workshops for faculty and staff across disciplines provide tools for fostering bridgebuilding in classrooms and workplaces, empowering educators and administrators to model and teach these values. When faculty and staff are fluent in the skills of building bridges across lines of deep difference and bringing members of the community together for cooperation, it can contribute to resolving high tension conflict in more productive ways. Campuses can make pluralism and bridgebuilding a part of training for those students, faculty, and staff with an outsized influence on campus culture—including student orientation and group leaders, student government, residence life staff and assistants, faculty chairs, and HR professionals. Finally, institutions can further strengthen these efforts by embedding structured assessments to measure program outcomes, ensuring that capacity-building initiatives are both impactful and sustainable. For many campuses, capacity building includes:
● Pluralism training in student orientation and onboarding for faculty and staff
● Embedding pluralism in training for student, faculty, and staff leaders who influence campus culture
● In-depth bridgebuilding skill development opportunities for students, faculty, and staff
● Ongoing assessment of pluralism work and impact on campus climate
Examples of Capacity Building in Action
James Madison University:
James Madison University (JMU) exemplifies the integration of pluralism and civic engagement through its Better Conversations Together program by connecting structured dialogue with the Madison Center for Civic Engagement. By combining service learning, democratic engagement, and pluralism, the program fosters a more holistic approach to dialogue and community-building. First-year and new transfer students are automatically enrolled in the program, and faculty and staff have opportunities for professional development through a partnership with the Center for Faculty Innovation.24
A central feature of the Better Conversations Together program is the development of Facilitation Fellows, a cohort of trained student leaders who moderate dialogues. These students not only serve as peer leaders but also act as role models, demonstrating essential skills like active listening, conflict resolution, and empathy. Through this training, the Fellows are equipped with practical tools to help navigate disagreements and promote constructive conversations. The peer-led model allows for capacity building for the entire student body, ensuring that key skills in pluralism are reinforced over time.25
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Dickinson College:
Dickinson College launched its Dialogues Across Difference (DxD) initiative in 2022.26 Central to the initiative’s focus on capacity-building are the Student Dialogue Coordinators, who are selected after completing an interdisciplinary course, INTD 250: Speaking and Writing Across Difference. This course equips students with skills in dialogue facilitation and conflict resolution, preparing them to lead campus-wide discussions on topics such as social justice and global citizenship.
After completion of INTD 250, course participants are invited to work with community members at Dickinson to have dialogue about difficult topics, acting as dialogue facilitators, which is supported by Dickinson’s Center for Civic Learning and Action.27 Dickinson also hosts an annual Faculty Learning Community (FLC) to train faculty on best practices for facilitating dialogues across lines of difference in the classroom. Participants have also developed courses incorporating dialogue into various disciplines.28
Middlebury College:
Middlebury College’s Conflict Transformation initiative shows a comprehensive, institution-wide approach to capacity building. First-year students are introduced to conflict resolution and dialogue practices through dedicated classwork and programs, which lay a shared foundation. Faculty and staff, meanwhile, are trained in integrating these skills into their teaching and leadership, creating a consistent framework that models respectful dialogue and prepares the campus to manage tensions proactively before there is major conflict on campus. The Conflict Transformation Collaborative also functions not just as a program provider, but also as a research hub, tracking the impact of its trainings, classes, and community engagements29
26 Dickinson College, “Dialogues Across Differences | Dickinson College.”
27 Dickinson College, “INTD 250: Speaking and Writing Across Difference | Dialogues Across Differences | Dickinson College.”
28 Dickinson College, “Faculty Learning Community | Dialogues Across Differences | Dickinson College.”
1. How does your campus already bring together large groups of students and employees for training and onboarding? What would it look like to integrate pluralism into these experiences?
2. Where do you see the skills to productively engage and facilitate engagement across deep difference to already be a part of the necessary competencies for student leaders and campus professionals?
3. In what areas of campus life do opportunities currently exist for advanced skill development among student leaders or for professional development among faculty and staff? What might it look like for pluralism to be a part of this skill development?
4. Do you have internal expertise to train in bridgebuilding, dialogue, and cooperation across difference or will you need to bring in outside partners? What would it look like to build up your internal capacity so that faculty, staff, and students could lead this training moving forward?
5. What existing campus assessment or research can provide insight into the impact of your pluralism efforts (such as existing campus climate or student and employee experience data)? What resources can you draw on to assess the work?
6. Career Readiness offices are well equipped to help students make connections between their time on campus and the skills they gain in the classroom and cocurricular spaces. What might it look like to partner with your Career Readiness office to clearly articulate the competencies of pluralism and the relevance of those skills for the workplace?
Capacity Building Next Steps
1. Convene the stakeholders responsible for implementing training for students (such as the Office of Student Life, Residential Life, and/or First-Year Experience Program) and employees (such as Human Resources, Faculty Development, and Teaching and Learning). Then, empower these colleagues to intentionally incorporate pluralism into their initiatives.
2. Explore internal capacity for deeper skill development around dialogue, bridgebuilding, and pluralism. If internal capacity needs growth, consider dedicating funds to bring in outside experts or build internal capacity.
3. Meet with Institutional Research and other relevant stakeholders to discuss what assessment of pluralism efforts could look like on your campus. Start with adding two or three measures into existing campus climate surveys.
Curriculum and Scholarship
Campuses have an opportunity to contribute to public discourse about polarization through academic engagement by supporting both teaching that engages pluralism in the classroom and faculty research and scholarship related to pluralism. The classroom provides a unique laboratory for exploring diverse viewpoints with curiosity across a range of disciplines. Strategically incorporating pluralism into widely taken courses ensures more students will encounter opportunities for bridgebuilding, not just those who opt into co-curricular or leadership experiences.
Curricular engagement with pluralism might include exploring the intellectual history of pluralism or theories of pluralism. Establishing pro-pluralism communication norms helps to realign students during times of tension. Overall, pluralism in the classroom exposes students to bridgebuilding skills, including active listening, curiosity-building, storysharing, and navigating tension. It creates opportunities for students to engage across meaningful lines of difference.30
For many campuses, Curriculum and Scholarship can include:
● Broad curricular engagement with pluralism (general education, first-year courses and seminars, etc.)
● Courses offered across disciplines on the theory and application of pluralism
● Course sequences (majors, minors, certificate programs in pluralism)
● Faculty research on pluralism supported and recognized by the institution
30
Examples of Curriculum and Scholarship in Action
Linfield University’s Pluralisms Requirements:
Linfield University has Global Pluralisms (GP) and United States Pluralisms (US) requirements as key components of its general education curriculum. These requirements challenge students to engage with cultural, social, religious, and philosophical differences, fostering a deeper understanding of global interdependence and the complexities of diversity within the United States.
GP-designated courses focus on analyzing differences between global cultures. Meanwhile, US-designated courses examine cultural and individual differences shaped by diverse identities and divergent ideologies within the U.S. context. Together, these requirements encourage critical engagement with diversity and promote mutual respect and tolerance as essential values. By completing these courses, students develop critical thinking skills and an appreciation for pluralism, equipping them to navigate an interconnected and multicultural world.31
Spring Arbor University:
The partnership between Spring Arbor University, a Christian institution, and Oberlin College, a progressive liberal arts school, helped launch the Bridging the Gap (BTG) Program in 2020, demonstrating how engaging pluralism through a curricular experience and faculty leadership can have impact far beyond the classroom.32 After piloting this initial iteration, BTG as a curriculum was integrated into Spring Arbor’s Core 100 course, ensuring all students gain foundational bridgebuilding skills early on. Additionally, students, faculty and staff receive continued training to engage across difference and manage conflict, including with local civic organizations, such as the Jackson Police Department and Jackson County ISD. They’ve also partnered with local organizations such as the Henry Ford Jackson Hospital, to share the university’s BTG expertise by providing certificate programs in bridgebuilding and active listening.33
Faculty and staff at Spring Arbor and Oberlin also played a crucial role in sustaining this initiative. Professional development sessions provided educators with tools to create inclusive learning environments and navigate challenging conversations, ensuring that pluralism was reinforced at multiple levels of campus life. As BTG grew to include over 50 campuses nationwide, Spring Arbor and Oberlin’s pioneering collaboration exemplified how institutions with divergent worldviews can work together to strengthen democratic discourse and bridge divides.
31 Linfield University, “Pluralism Requirements.”
32 Interfaith America, “Bridging the Gap.”
33 Spring Arbor University, “Bridging the Gap.”
Cynthia Liang
St. Mary’s College of California:
The Center for Engaged Religious Pluralism (CERP) at Saint Mary’s College of California offers academic programs such as the Interfaith Leadership Minor and the Intercultural-Interfaith Leadership Concentration, which are designed to equip students with competencies in religious literacy, communication, and leadership within diverse environments. These programs reflect a commitment to integrating interfaith understanding into the academic curriculum.
Additionally, CERP features scholarly initiatives like the Prison Religion Project, which addresses the intersection of religious pluralism, prisoner rights, and public policy, which contribute to research in the field.34
La Salle University:
La Salle University’s Bachelor of Arts in Religion program explicitly names pluralism as a foundational value, aligning with the institution’s educational commitments. The program describes its dedication to pluralism by “creating spaces and events that cultivate religious diversity and multiculturalism, diverse methodological practices in their research and teaching, and by going out into their campus’ community to encounter and reflect on difference.35
Augsburg University:
The Interfaith Scholars program at Augsburg University serves as a significant curricular initiative that engages students in interreligious dialogue and action. This yearlong course, offered in collaboration with the Interfaith Institute at Augsburg and the Religion Department, immerses students in exploring methods and best practices for discussing religion within a diverse democracy. Through interactions with guest speakers from various religious communities, business professionals, and leaders across different sectors, students gain firsthand experience in understanding and appreciating religious diversity not only within the Augsburg community, but the country. The program emphasizes leadership development, encouraging students to converse respectfully about their beliefs and understand how these beliefs inspire service in the world.
Students are then encouraged to bring their learning into the broader campus community, emphasizing the power and importance of pluralism on Augsburg’s campus.
Beyond the classroom, the Interfaith Scholars program at Augsburg promotes pluralism by involving students in community service learning and participation in events that nurture interfaith understanding and cooperation. Students engage directly with the religiously diverse community of the Cedar-Riverside community in Minneapolis, enhancing their intercultural competence and their ability to bridge religious and cultural divides.
Karin Hildebrand Lau
Shutterstock/Ken Wolter
Curriculum and Scholarship Questions to Consider
1. What curricular structures (such as first-year seminars or general education requirements) exist at your institution that reach a broad swath of students? Consider both the impact and the ease/difficulty of incorporating pluralism into each of these as you think about strategic engagement within the curriculum.
2. Which faculty, academic administrators, departments, and academic programs are already supportive of or convivial to pluralism? How might you connect and support them in a community of learning or in developing cohesive curricular offerings?
3. What financial resources or other support might you offer to encourage pluralism course development, pedagogy, or scholarship?
Curriculum and Scholarship Next Steps
1. Convene colleagues who influence curriculum to discuss opportunities for integrating pluralism.
2. Gather faculty across disciplines whose research, teaching, and scholarship connect to pluralism; explore possibilities to incentivize and support this teaching and research.
Co-Curricular Engagement
Co-curricular engagement offers campuses a unique opportunity to complement academic learning with hands-on experiences that deepen students’ understanding of pluralism. These activities provide students, faculty, and staff with spaces to practice the skills of dialogue, empathy, and collaboration in real-world settings, reinforcing the principles introduced in the classroom. By participating in co-curricular programs, students can expand their perspectives, develop leadership skills, and engage constructively with societal challenges, preparing them for meaningful contributions beyond their academic careers.
When co-curricular programs are integrated with classroom learning and campus-wide training, their impact becomes even more significant. Faculty who are honing dialogue and bridgebuilding skills through professional development can align their teaching with co-curricular initiatives, creating a consistent framework for engagement across the campus. Staff and student leaders, equipped with similar training, can extend these principles into extracurricular spaces, amplifying their reach and fostering a culture of cooperation across difference. These could include structured dialogue programs that encourage interaction across lines of difference, service learning projects where students come together across deep differences to work together on identifying shared values and on a shared concern, student leadership initiatives focused on pluralism, co-curricular workshops on bridgebuilding and conflict resolution, or collaboration between campus organizations to promote diverse perspectives and mutual respect. This alignment ensures that students encounter pluralism in multiple contexts, reinforcing their learning and building institutional capacity. Additionally, student fellowship models reinforce the power of students to create and lead pluralism programming for their peers across campus in their spheres of influence, ensuring buy-in.
For many campuses, Co-Curricular Engagement includes:
● Ongoing pluralism programming led by students, faculty, and staff
● Student fellowship for pluralism supported by institutional leadership
Examples of Co-Curricular Engagement in Action:
Providence College:
In response to growing societal polarization, Providence College created a Dialogue, Inclusion, and Democracy Lab, co-led by a senior leader and a faculty member with dialogue expertise. This initiative organizes structured dialogue programs designed to foster civil discourse among students from diverse backgrounds. By focusing on timely and contentious topics, such as the role of social media in elections or navigating political differences, the lab provides students with a platform to practice empathy, active listening, and respectful engagement.36
Student leaders play a vital role in facilitating these conversations, promoting pluralism and inclusion while gaining skills in conflict resolution and dialogue facilitation. The lab also collaborates with campus organizations and academic departments to ensure its initiatives reach a broad audience, creating a shared culture of mutual respect and understanding.
By integrating structured dialogues, leadership development, and collaboration, Providence College’s approach prepares students to navigate complex social dynamics constructively, both within and beyond the campus community.
Otterbein University:
Otterbein’s Pluralism Collaborative actively engages students through the Pluralism Collective Fellows. The fellowship program offers training and encourages the development of cross-affinity events that unite diverse student groups. By collaborating with the Department of Philosophy and Religion to create educational materials and by hosting events like “A Taste of Faith,” which showcases religious diversity through their cultural traditions, the program is able to foster intergroup dialogue and understanding.37
36 Hicks, “In Time of Campus Turmoil, More Colleges Try Teaching Civil Discourse.”
37 Otterbein University, “Interfaith America Funds New Pluralism Collaborative at Otterbein - Otterbein University.”
Jon Bilous
Baylor University:
The Baylor Bridgebuilding Fellows program selects a cohort of students and faculty who undergo training in deep listening, constructive conversation, and conflict navigation through the Bridging the Gap (BTG) curriculum. These fellows serve as facilitators and role models from their training onward, creating spaces for respectful engagement on campus.38 Fellows are able to influence the broader campus community and culture, ensuring that pluralism is kept in mind when dealing with a variety of issues that affect both university staff and students.
The impact of the fellows extends beyond individual participation, as faculty members are encouraged to embed bridgebuilding principles within their academic disciplines. The Faculty Bridgebuilding Fellows, a group of twelve educators in the program’s first cohort, incorporate the practices learned in their BTG work into their teaching and departmental programs. By fostering civil discourse in and out of their classrooms, they help to create a campus culture for Baylor that values open and respectful dialogue across diverse perspectives.39 Both student and faculty fellows are available on an ad hoc basis to promote mutual respect and understanding when tension arise on campus, acting as “volunteer firefighters” that the university can rely on to help when conflict arises.40
38 Fogleman, "Bridgebuilding Fellows Demonstrate a Model for Bridging Divides in Difficult Conversations.”
39 Fogleman, "Faculty Bridgebuilding Fellows Support Healthy Civil Discourse Initiatives.”
40 Baylor University, "Bridging the Gap and the Baylor Bridgebuilding Fellows program.”
Victoria Ditkovsky
University of Virginia:
The Karsh Institute of Democracy’s Talking Across Difference initiative includes monthly Talking Across Difference dinners for students with differing ideologies, majors, and cultural backgrounds to come together during a meal and engage in deep conversations. The events are co-hosted by Student Affairs and the President’s Office, and followed structured dialogue formats that encourage active listening, respectful engagement, and shared reflection. For example, in Fall 2022 the inaugural dinner brought together members of the College Republicans and University Democrats to bridge stereotypes and humanize each other through conversation at UVA’s Colonnade Club.41
Massachusetts Institute of Technology:
The MIT Concourse Program is a first-year learning community that integrates the STEM fields with the humanities to provide students with holistic educational experience. The program admits up to fifty freshmen annually who are interested in understanding the breadth of human knowledge and the larger context of their technical studies. In the specific Civil Discourse Project, Concourse also equips students with the ability to engage in respectful, openminded discussions across lines of difference early in students’ academic journeys, building their capacity for pluralistic engagement.42
Co-Curricular Engagement Questions to Consider
1. What student leadership programming on campus is highly successful and why? What might you learn from this to develop a robust and successful pluralism leadership program?
2. Where is there alignment between co-curricular programming and pluralism already on campus that can be amplified? For example, what might it look like to add a dialogue across difference component to existing service learning programs?
Co-Curricular Engagement Next Steps
1. Explore opportunities to dedicate funding and support for a pluralism fellowship, dialogue ambassadors, or other competitive student leadership program focused on bridgebuilding.
2. Consider opportunities to support large-scale programming that focuses on pluralism and bridgebuilding, such as a speaker series, dinner and dialogue events, etc.
Bryan Pollard
Tada Images
Tools 10 Actions Leaders Can Take to Champion Pluralism on Campus
One of the most important roles you can play as a leader for bridgebuilding is by becoming a champion of pluralism on campus. This involves both leveraging your role and influence on campus to cast a vision for pluralism within your institution and delegating and empowering others at different levels within the institution to exercise their own leadership. Here we identify some of the next-step actions that senior leaders can take to leverage their leadership for impact.
While the sequencing may differ at each institution, the order in which we lay them out is intentional, as they can build on each other and can be mutually reinforcing.
ONE: Model Pluralism in How You Lead
Whether you are just beginning your pluralism efforts or championing the strategic integration of existing efforts, consider how you can model bridgebuilding in your leadership. Even as leaders know the importance of creating space for respect, relationships, and cooperation in classrooms or programming, they often miss the opportunity to translate those approaches to the more formal administrative settings in which they regularly lead. Here are some techniques you might consider:
● When you convene a Pluralism Working Group (more on this below), establish group norms. Spend time during your first meeting discussing these norms, writing them up as you define them together, and sharing them out following your meeting. You might ask: “What do we need from each other to ensure that through our work builds relationships across difference? What will it look like for us to continue to cooperate on shared goals even when we have disagreements? How can we ensure that all perspectives are heard, regardless of different roles we may have within the institution?” You can return to these norms at the start of each meeting and when conflicts arise.
● Demonstrate deep listening as you lead. One of the most important skills of bridgebuilding is deep listening and curiosity. What does it look like for you to lead with listening on campus even when you might be at the front of the room? How can you support practices that elevate listening and reflection?
● Encourage conversation structures that create space for all voices to be heard. Consider starting meetings with a formal question or reflection that allows all voices around the table to be heard before jumping into the agenda. Although such practices might feel like they consume precious meeting time, they go a long way in creating a sense of curiosity, listening, and empathy that can strengthen the commitment to work together.
● Return to shared goals and common values when tensions arise. Tensions and conflict will inevitably arise when doing the sensitive work of cultivating cooperation across difference. Although conflict can have negative connotations, leading to avoidance, it can also be understood as a descriptive indicator of group dynamics. Instead of downplaying tensions or disagreement in an effort to keep things collegial, think about how you can use your group norms, shared goals, and commitment to pluralism to address them directly but with a commitment to deep relationships.
TWO: Speak Up for Pluralism
As a champion for pluralism, you have the opportunity to craft a compelling public message, both internally and externally, about why pluralism is central to your particular institution. While this will vary based on your role, most senior leaders have the opportunity to articulate publicly and in internal leadership spaces the values and priorities of the institution. At a time when higher education is subject to significant criticism, being an early leader in pluralism work is an opportunity to differentiate your university to external audiences. Think about your spheres of influence and how you can make this connection to pluralism in the different ways that you speak about what is important to your institution:
● Build on your assets. Look at your institution’s existing strengths and guiding documents (we say more on this below). Where are opportunities to make the connection to pluralism for your campus community? What messages are likely to resonate?
● Incorporate pluralism into the public speaking that you do. Are you welcoming new faculty to campus? Discuss how pluralism is a part of institutional values. Giving comments at new student orientation? Share with students how pluralism will characterize their experience at your institution.
● Connect pluralism to your internal and team leadership. Campus leaders have the opportunity to set the tone and direction of an institution not just in public messaging but also internal conversations. What would it look like to have a staff meeting dedicated to discussing how pluralism connects to your division’s work, both strategically and on the individual level?
● Be a champion for pluralism in written communication. Consider the different written communications your team is charged with and make the connection to pluralism. This might include messaging on web pages, newsletters, promotional materials, and how you communicate to students or colleagues.
● Lead with a message of pluralism over punishment. Wherever possible when navigating tensions around diverse identities and worldviews, think about how you can lean into a message of respect, relate, cooperate and connect it to who you are as an institution. Practices like restorative justice and conflict transformation may be helpful here; having a philosophy and skills for approaching conflict with a pluralism lens before conflict happens is incredibly valuable. Your crisis or risk management team might consider talking through scenarios of what it would look like to lean into pluralism even in situations where some campus community members are actively working against pluralism. While pluralism is not always the right or final approach, we have seen many examples where a campus equipped with skills and strategies of conflict transformation can deescalate what otherwise might become enflamed.43
THREE: Take an Asset-Based Approach
Supporting pluralism is difficult work – especially in contentious times. It can be easy to focus on the barriers to constructive work. While being realistic about challenges, we have seen campuses that take an asset-based approach to their interfaith and pluralism work often have greater success with both building excitement and sustaining the work as it builds on existing resources and structures rather than building everything from the ground up.44
Based on the work of the Asset-Based Community Development Institute at DePaul University, and the research of Jody Kretzmann and John McKnight, an asset-based (as opposed to a needs-based or deficit-based) approach to planning begins by asking stakeholders to explore what assets and strengths exist and can be built on. This strengths-based approach looks both at the individuals and the structures and practices of an institution to see what they have to offer the work. In terms of the campus pluralism practices, an asset-based approach might ask questions such as:
Institutional Leadership
● Who in our leadership (administrators, faculty leaders, governing boards members, etc.) is already invested in pluralism? How have they already demonstrated that investment?
● Which of our guiding documents (mission statement, vision statement, strategic plan, etc.) connect to pluralism in some way? How do we amplify that connection?
Capacity Building
● What are the structures in our campus that already exist and reach a broad number of our campus community (student orientation, FYE, employee orientation, etc.)? How might pluralism connect to those existing structures?
● What structures exist for leadership development (faculty, staff, student, etc.) where capacity-building or training around pluralism might be a value added?
● Who are the people involved in these initiatives who are already or could become excited about bridgebuilding and pluralism efforts?
Curriculum and Scholarship
● Who are the faculty (across disciplines) who are already teaching or researching in areas related to pluralism? What would it look like to gather these faculty to discuss opportunities for collaboration?
● What curricula structures exist that have flexibility or openness to new content (the ease of implementation in this area will vary significantly by institution but could include things like general education courses or first-year seminars, etc.)
● What resources could be leveraged to incentivize faculty to develop their own teaching and research in the area of pluralism?
Co-Curricular Programming
● Which student-facing events and programming have large numbers of students participating? How could pluralism be connected to these programs, or what could your committee learn from them to champion impactful pluralism programming.
● What offices on campus might be invested in pluralism co-curricular initiatives? Think about offices that work with diverse student populations that may already be doing bridgebuilding or may need support in doing so; these could be as varied as Civic Engagement, Student Life, Spiritual Life, Residence Life, Athletics, and even Greek Life.
While the specific questions you ask with an asset-based approach will vary by your unique campus context, the practice of leading with “what assets do we have here that we can build on?” will help frame your work in constructive, positive terms even as it is challenging.
FOUR: Form a Pluralism Working Group or Committee
Forming a pluralism working group or committee—structured in alignment with your institution’s existing processes to promote longevity and stakeholder buy-in—is an effective way to catalyze engagement, whether your campus is just beginning pluralism efforts or already has well-established initiatives. By convening such a group, you indicate your own personal investment in the work and offer encouragement from leadership to take the work seriously. If appropriate for institutional dynamics, it may be beneficial to have the committee charged with their work by the president or another senior leader.
The scope of work will vary depending on context. If your campus is just beginning pluralism efforts, you might start with preliminary visioning conversations about why pluralism is important to your institution, followed by asset mapping. If your campus already has already begun pluralism work, consider bringing key stakeholders together to learn from one another to ensure the work is not siloed but strategic and mutually reinforcing.
The committee should be expansive in its membership while not being too big to be constructive; if there are many people who would benefit from being involved, consider having smaller working groups break off to tackle particular areas. Consider including senior leaders (Vice Presidents, Provosts, or Deans) from relevant divisions, such as academics, faculty senate, student life, student success, career readiness, diversity and belonging, civic engagement, and religious life. If your campus already has bridgebuilding efforts, consider including the faculty or staff already working towards pluralism (such as a Director of Pluralism Programming) as well as faculty whose scholarship or teaching intersects with pluralism. Consider which student leaders can help you think about generating broader student buy-in to the work. In addition to those with influential roles, invite into leadership those show a clear interest in pluralism – this might include faculty or administrators with a disciplinary connection or student leaders from relevant student groups.
Finally, as you consider the make up of your Pluralism Committee, think about how you can invite in and empower those campus constituents committed to pluralism. In her book High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out, journalist Amanda Ripley coins the term “conflict entrepreneur” to identify those individuals in a community who spark negative conflict for their own ends.45 Conflict entrepreneurs are those who seek to stir the pot, to elevate conflict, to further divide a community into opposing sides. Though their motivations are varied, most of us can think of the time when a conflict went from manageable to intractable, and those people who played a role in ensuring it was not constructively resolved. A key strategy for fostering pluralism is to elevate the bridgebuilders and downplay the conflict entrepreneurs; this is a particularly powerful move for a leader to take and models pluralism for others. While those with legitimate concerns, questions, and fears should not be disregarded, consider how you might also lift up those who are focused on a constructive, positive way forward, rather than giving attention to just those who are in conflict. When so many of our divisions seem intractable—be they religious, political, or ideological—beginning with those who seek common ground and to work together across lines of difference will help you identify partners in the work and lift up the kind of collaboration that you seek to support as a champion of pluralism.
45 See ”What Does Productive Campus Protest Look Like?” for an in-depth case study of how Dr. Laurie Patton approached this during her presidency at Middlebury: https://www.interfaithamerica.org/podcast/laurie-patton/
FIVE: Create a Pluralism Strategic Plan to Integrate Efforts and Commit to Pluralism for the Long Term
Over the past few years, many campuses have been drawn to pluralism and bridgebuilding work as a way to address tensions on campus resulting from polarization or the breakdown of civil discourse. At the same time, pluralism efforts are most effective when they are not merely reactionary, but sustainably practiced and invested in. Pluralism should not be seen as an emergency response, but rather preventative care that ensures a campus community is healthy and resilient in the face of future conflict.
Additionally, in the process of asset mapping, many campus leadership teams discover they already have many initiatives in place that foster respect for diverse identities, relationships across deep difference, and cooperation for the common good. From individual courses with dialogue modules to orientation sessions that focus on cultivating belonging across difference, asset mapping can reveal an abundance of programming that contributes to the goals of pluralism. At the same time, asset mapping can also point toward siloed efforts, a lack of shared goals or strategy, and competing interests from different departments or divisions.
One way to address such realities is to work with your committee to build on your assets and guiding documents to craft a pluralism strategic plan that focuses on time-bound, measurable goals to make sure pluralism efforts are mutually reinforcing, resources will have more impact, and the campus community will see integration. As you begin planning, consider the following:
● Have an ambitious but realistic timeframe. As mentioned above, the work of bridgebuilding takes time to do well, allowing time to build and practice skills and perhaps rebuild where relationships have been frayed. A three-to-five year timeline tends to sufficient for planning that allows both time to do hard work well and begin to see measurable impact.
● Envision the concrete ways your campus will look different if your efforts are successful. Invite your pluralism committee to envision together what success looks like at the end of your identified time frame. How will campus climate be different? With what knowledge and competencies will students graduate? How will the campus respond when faced with conflict or disagreement. How will you be able to measure this change?
● Use your vision to craft goals. Building on what you imagine for how your campus will look different, identify concrete, measurable goals that articulate what you will achieve in your 3-5 years. Consider how each goal maps onto the pluralism practices – what goals will have you related to each of those four areas?
● Determine how you will measure success. Building on the change you want to see and your goals, identify concrete, measurable outcomes. See section ten below for more ideas on measurement.
● Think about both breadth and depth. Many campuses have exceptional pluralism programs or courses which support deep skill and knowledge development but have limited scope. Consider what it looks like to go deep with those most committed to the work and how to engage a broader set of the student body and employees through lighter, embedded touchpoints.
● Ask questions about impact and implementation. Especially if your campus already has several pluralism efforts, do the hard work to think through which efforts have the most impact and which do not. Discuss those efforts that are easy to implement and those that are more challenging. Efforts with a lot of impact—even if they are difficult to implement— may be worthwhile. But efforts that are both difficult to implement and have less impact should be up for reconsideration. This may involve difficult conversations for those invested in the work, so think together about how your shared vision can create new strategic opportunities.
● Create a plan that clearly delineates timelines, roles, and responsibilities. Create timelines and goals for each semester and year that align with three-to-five year goals. Discuss responsibilities and capacity and, where there is ambiguity, take the time to work through it.
● Learn from what has worked before. What other campus efforts have used strategic planning to successful ends? What made those plans successful at your particular campus and how can you apply that to a plan for pluralism?
SIX: Align Your Work with Guiding Documents
Guiding documents—such as an institution’s mission and vision statement, institutional values, strategic plan, and even learning outcomes or student competencies—all work to create a shared and public understanding of an institution’s priorities and core commitments. By connecting your pluralism efforts to your institution’s guiding documents, you anchor your work in what matters most to the institution and make the “case” that pluralism is central to your university’s identity.
For some campuses, making the connection between pluralism and guiding documents and articulating that connection in a compelling way to the community will be the right first step. For other campuses—perhaps in the midst of a strategic planning process, or where there is significant senior-level commitment to elevating pluralism—it may be possible to directly incorporate pluralism into those guiding documents.
As you explore the connections between pluralism and your institution’s guiding documents, consider how you can leverage those connections to make the case for or further your work. Use these connections to think strategically about your particular areas of influence. For example:
● How can your planned pluralism work help the university achieve key outcomes articulated its strategic plan (e.g., increased student retention or career readiness)?
● Does a connection between pluralism and your institution’s vision of “cultivating global citizens” open doors for developing a pluralism student fellowship or funding faculty research related to pluralism?
● How can you connect pluralism to your university’s motto in your comments during opening convocation for new students?
● How might connections to mission and vision help you make the case for pluralism in your annual budgetary work?
While the way you leverage these connections to pluralism depends on your particular institution type, your role within the institution, and the weight these kinds of documents play in your context, thinking strategically about these connections, both in your own role and with other leaders you convene can help make the case for pluralism.
SEVEN: Cast a Vision…and Delegate
As a senior leader championing pluralism on campus, your role is likely not to be in the weeds on the ins and outs of how pluralism efforts will be implemented, especially in areas outside of your direct purview. Casting a vision for pluralism, connecting it to what makes your institution unique, and regularly reminding your leadership team of that vision, is one of the most valuable things you can do. As a working group convener, your role can be to ground the group in that vision and charging members of the group with clear leadership opportunities and delegation of responsibility.
Before you invite others into leadership, ensure they have what they need to be successful and that you are aligned with your vision. We have seen many campus examples where a senior leader, like a president or chancellor, is energized about the work but those she or he delegates to are not fully on board. As a result, the work flags and campus constituents criticize it as a “top down” passion project. One way to avoid this is to spend time listening to the questions and concerns of those you are delegating to, make sure they have the necessary professional development to be ready to lead for pluralism, and that they feel equipped to articulate from their own particular role why this work is powerful.
Once you are ready to delegate, one way to approach this is by determining clear leadership and a smaller subcommittee related to each of the four pluralism practices. While you might lead the follow-up work related to institutional leadership, who within the working group could take on leadership in each of the four remaining areas? Be clear about what the next steps look like:
● Are they continuing to map assets and reporting back on what they find?
● Are they meeting with other stakeholders to learn more about opportunities and challenges?
● Should they begin planning what work might look like in their area over the next six months? Three years?
● How much time before you meet again and what do you hope for each group to report back?
EIGHT: Connect Pluralism to Recruitment and Retention
Many campus leaders committed to pluralism worry they will not be able to make a case for the work within the reality of competing and pressing priorities—from tightening budgets to pressures around recruitment and retention. One might fear that pluralism simply looks like a luxury pursuit for less tenuous times. We have talked with many campus leaders, however, who see real value in connecting pluralism to the core work of recruiting and retaining students, and helping them to see higher education in alignment with core values in a time when public trust in higher education has been rapidly declining.47 As recent research from More in Common suggests, 70% of Americans believe they have a sense of responsibility to connect with those from different backgrounds and viewpoints, and a majority of Americans are “interested in activities where they can work together across lines of difference.”48 Given this reality, what would it look like to think about recruitment and retention through the lens of pluralism? Consider the following:
● How can you articulate a commitment to pluralism as a key reason why students and families might choose your university?
● How can you highlight your pluralism efforts in your recruitment and application materials so that incoming students understand your campus to be a place where students from diverse worldviews and perspectives actively engage with one another?
● How do pluralism efforts contribute to retention, through fostering a sense of belonging and skill development for life after college?
● The National Association of College and Employers (NACE) identifies the competencies employers most want in graduates, including the ability to listen well to others and effectively manage conflict in diverse teams.49 How does pluralism contribute to the outcomes that employers are looking for in graduates, and how can you articulate this connection clearly to students and families?
48 Small, Calista, Daniel Yudkin, and Jordan Wylie, “The Connection Opportunity: Insights for Bringing Americans Together Across Difference.”
49
NINE: Dedicate Resources and Build Capacity
While many faculty, staff, and students are generally supportive of pluralism, we often hear that they feel they lack the resources or skills to take leadership in the area. The work of bridging deep differences is hard and requires time to practice and hone those skills. It is also often work that is uncompensated, taken up by those who are passionate about the work. By being innovative in how you build capacity and resource leaders committed to pluralism, you can demonstrate that those doing that hard work are valued and supported by the institution, leading to more sustainable efforts. Consider the following ways you might contribute to or incentivize different members of your community to support and contribute to a culture of pluralism:
● Connect pluralism to existing resources. Explore existing incentives for faculty that could support those who want to develop courses on pluralism, or incorporate dialogue into their existing courses. For example, are there professional development grants, or funding through something like a Center for Teaching and Learning that would support faculty in their own skill development? Are there funds that sit in academic affairs or academic research that could support faculty who want to pursue research related to pluralism?
● Prioritize training-the-trainer. When thinking about capacity building, encourage approaches that will equip faculty, staff, and students to bring those skills back to campus and train others. Building faculty and staff capacity on dialogue and bridgebuilding so that they can offer training themselves in the future helps to ensure sustainability of your efforts.
● Compensate leadership around pluralism. Many campuses have pluralism or dialogue fellowships with stipends or compensation for faculty, staff, and students who take a leadership role around pluralism through classes, research, staff professional development, or student programming. Consider what models of leadership development have worked at your own institution and how you can learn from those models to cultivate leadership around pluralism.
● Support communities of practice that allow those leading pluralism on campus to learn from each other. Bridgebuilding involves a set of skills that needs regular practice and reflection to remain nimble. Can you provide a small budget for lunches to support regular gatherings of bridgebuilders within your institution?
● Pursue external funding for pluralism. Meet with your advancement office to discuss why pluralism is important for your institution in this critical moment for higher education. Identify potential foundations and individual donors to approach with proposals to support pluralism efforts. Additionally, many bridgebuilding organizations—including Interfaith America—provide grants, stipends, fellowships, and other financial support for this work. Encourage campus leaders to take advantage of these opportunities.
● Celebrate pluralism achievements in the ways that make sense for your institution. Utilize the same campus channels that showcase excellence in other areas to lift up excellence in building bridges across difference. For example, if you have annual awards for students or professionals, add an award for pluralism. If you feature excellent students in your alumni magazine, tell a story about your student pluralism fellows.
TEN: Find Partners to Help Measure Impact
As bridgebuilding and pluralism are relatively new as formal fields of study and practice, there are not yet common measures embedded into standard campus assessment, and most campuses do not have methods for assessing pluralism in tools like their regular campus climate surveys.50 While the field is still developing these tools, we recommend identifying partners on your campus that can be charged with helping assess the impact of the work you are championing. You might consider reaching out to:
● Institutional Research. Discuss what data is already being collected in campus climate surveys, assessment of student learning outcomes, and other areas that may be relevant to pluralism. Discuss the capacity of the IR office to help you and your team develop new measures that can look at the impact of the pluralism practices in the short and long term.
● Faculty with Assessment Expertise who work in areas Related to Pluralism. Connect with faculty who are invested in pluralism and who have relevant expertise; this may range from thinking about how to incorporate pre- and post-surveys into classroom work they are doing related to dialogue or bridgebuilding to larger-scale assessment possibilities. If exploring a broader assessment opportunity, consider methods of compensation for the faculty doing the work.
3. Offices like Civic or Community Engagement, Inclusion and Belonging, Student Life, or Career Readiness. These offices may already be measuring campus climate and student attitudes towards things engaging across difference, skills for engaging with others, or how skills gained in college translate to bridging differences in the workplace. Learn more about data they already collect and what you might learn from it.
In prompting the conversation and pulling in partners to think about measurement and evaluation, you signal the institution’s commitment to making pluralism serious and lasting work on campus.
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