Announcing Better Discourse: A Guide for Bridging Campus Divides in Challenging Times

Campus Compact today released a new resource, Better Discourse on Campus: A Guide for Bridging Campus Divides in Challenging Times. This guide was developed and launched this summer to quickly respond to campus needs for better discourse for what many expect to be a continuously uncertain and potentially tumultuous 2024–2025 academic year. This guide serves as a back-to-campus starter kit and includes prompts for self-reflection, advice for asset mapping, and references to the tools, policies, and evidence-based practices that campuses need to quickly implement better discourse practices.

The guide was developed as part of the larger Scaling Discourse in Higher Education Project, supported by the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations. The longer-term project will build upon the data and work this summer to build, curate, and share resources that will assist campuses in assessing and accessing evidence-based practices and resources for better discourse.

The guide was written by a work group of five nationally recognized bridge-building, dialogue, and discourse experts that Campus Compact convened this summer as a response to calls from higher education leaders requesting help in preparing the 2024–2025 academic year.

• Sara A. Mehltretter Drury, PhD, Associate Professor of Rhetoric at Wabash College
• Allison Briscoe-Smith, PhD, Senior Fellow at the Greater Good Science Center
• Nicholas V. Longo, PhD, Chair & Professor of Global Studies, and Co-Director of the Dialogue, Inclusion & Democracy Lab at Providence College
• Lisa-Marie Napoli, PhD, Director of Political and Civic Engagement (PACE) and Voices for Democracy and Constructive Conversations at Indiana University
• Rachel Rains Winslow, PhD, Director of Faculty Development and Associate Professor of History and Politics at George Fox University

This summer work group surveyed the needs, priorities, and experiences of faculty, staff, administrators, and campus executives to more deeply understand the current needs, priorities, and promising practices in higher education by implementing a field survey of diverse higher education stakeholders, interviewing leaders from national bridge-building and dialogue organizations, and conducting focus groups with faculty, staff, and administrators colleges and universities across the country.

The information this team gathered was analyzed and synthesized to create the Better Discourse guide and to ensure that the recommendations it offers are actionable and reflective of campus needs.

To facilitate campus use of the guide, Campus Compact will host two webinars (Tuesday, August 6 and Wednesday, August 14) that showcase the guide and highlight ways the practices it features can be implemented on campus. Register at events.compact.org/better-discourse.

For more information and to access the full guide, visit compact.org/better-discourse. For questions, contact Laura Weaver at lweaver@compact.org.