Announcing the Scaling Discourse in Higher Education Project
Campus Compact today announced that it has received funding from the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations to pursue a new project, Scaling Discourse in Higher Education. The project aims to assist campuses in accessing effective and evidence-based bridge-building, dialogue, and discourse tools, methods, and practices to increase students’ abilities to engage across difference, become effective participants in our democracy, and navigate the challenging issues of our time.
With the support of the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, Campus Compact will ultimately launch an interactive virtual platform to curate the most useful tools and aid faculty, staff, and administrators at colleges and universities across the country find the best resources to fit their unique needs. To complement the virtual platform, Campus Compact will develop resources that will help campuses assess their needs, build their knowledge of bridge-building activities, and find pathways to action. The resources and related virtual platform will be available free of charge to campuses across the country.
These efforts will result in the growth of a broad coalition of service providers, colleges and universities, nonprofit organizations, and key partners who are all positioned to scale bridge-building and dialogue work across the country.
Implementation of the Scaling Discourse in Higher Education project will take place over the next two years. It will engage faculty, staff, campus leaders from colleges and universities across the country to contribute their ideas, priorities, examples, and innovations. Experts in the field will serve as fellows for the project and work to identify and curate resources that include the best practices, frameworks, and models of high-quality and inclusive pedagogy. The initiative will also specifically focus on promoting evidence-based practices from higher education and non-profit organizations.
“From the classroom to student centers and beyond, campuses are responding to the growing polarization in our society by deepening their commitment to advancing discourse and dialogue. By allowing people from all perspectives to come to the table and engage in constructive exchanges, we can empower individuals to engage in shared learning, thoughtful deliberation, and when appropriate, collective action to address today’s greatest challenges,” said Matt Farley, chief strategy & operations officer at Campus Compact. “Campus Compact is proud to partner with the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations and leaders from higher education and the Bridging fields to advance this work to better meet the moment by scaling and integrating civil discourse and bridging across campuses.”
Coming this summer: campus resource guide
To make a more immediate impact, Campus Compact will release an initial campus resource guide this summer to assist colleges and universities in finding bridge-building resources to meet immediate priorities—including polarization associated with the 2024 US Elections, the ongoing Israel-Palestine crisis, and other issues facing our campus communities. The guide will help colleges and universities quickly meet the needs of the moment to support the free exchange of ideas, address student protests, and ensure campus safety.
Campus Compact is excited to work with five civil discourse and bridge-building experts to develop the campus resource guide this summer:
- Dr. Sara Drury, Associate Professor of Rhetoric at Wabash College, team lead
- Dr. Nicholas V. Longo, Chair and Professor of Global Studies and Co-Director of the Dialogue, Inclusion, and Democracy (DID) Lab at Providence College
- Dr. Lisa-Marie Napoli, Director and Senior Lecturer in the Political and Civic Engagement program at Indiana University
- Dr. Allison Briscoe-Smith, Senior Fellow at the Greater Good Science Center and the co-instructor of the GGSC's Bridging Differences online course
- Dr. Rachel Rains Winslow, Director of Faculty Development and Associate Professor of History at George Fox University.
As part of the development of the campus resource guide, Campus Compact is seeking input from across the country through a survey. The survey will build Campus Compact’s understanding of student, faculty, staff, and administrators’ experiences with bridge-building and dialogue work, explore ongoing campus practices, and uncover institutions’ needs for civil discourse programming. Students, faculty, staff, and administrators are encouraged to complete the survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/W987KWW. Those who complete the survey by July 3 will be entered into a drawing for half-price registration to Compact25, Campus Compact's 2025 national conference.