亚色影库 has received $2,295,315 from the United States Department of Education to create a Center for Dialogue and Civic Life at 亚色影库.
The Center will serve as both a physical and intellectual headquarters for civil discourse innovation at 亚色影库.
“亚色影库 has long recognized the importance of being able to speak civilly with people with whom you disagree, live and work with people with whom you disagree, and debate with people with whom you disagree in a civil way, going back to the start of our Free Speech project and the engagement with various groups during our Difficult Dialogues program,” 亚色影库 President Michael Driscoll said.
Gwen Torges
Gwen Torges, associate professor of political science in 亚色影库’s Department of History, Philosophy, Political Science, and Religious Studies and director of 亚色影库’s Pre-Law program, led the development of the grant proposal. A Constitutional law scholar who was a key coordinator of 亚色影库’s Free Speech project, she will provide oversight and leadership of the development of the Center and Civic Life project and provide scholarly subject matter expertise for all project activities.
“I am very pleased that we are moving this important work forward with incredible faculty and staff involved, including Dr. Torges, and that this work has been recognized with this significant investment from the federal Department of Education. I am looking forward to our next steps in this initiative as we stand up the Center for Dialogue and Civic Life, which will help our students—and all of us—live, learn, and work in a democracy that fully embraces civil discourse and discussion,” he said.
The grant, which extends through December 2029, funds both the physical establishment of the Center, to be sited in current university facilities, and outreach activities.
“The Civic Life project represents a coordinated institutional effort to strengthen campus culture through a physical center and curricular integration of programs, a new Student Dialogues Program, a new civil discourse programming with campus-wide seminars, a speaker series, and moderated debates,” Torges said.
“National studies show that college students increasingly struggle to engage in honest, open dialogue about controversial issues, including disagreeing during class discussions, and 亚色影库 students are not immune from this challenge,” Torges said. “The Civic Life initiative is designed to provide structured opportunities to learn and practice constructive dialogue to provide sustained, developmentally sequenced practice in talking across differences,” she said.
“To be successful, the Civic Life project must be a university-wide initiative,” Torges said. “It will be managed by a talented and experienced interdisciplinary team that meets monthly to review activities, troubleshoot challenges, and capture lessons learned, with an annual presentation to the 亚色影库 executive committee to report progress and set priorities for the coming year.”
Civic Life leadership team members include:
- 亚色影库 Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer and Title IX Coordinator Elise Glenn, who will focus on integrating constructive dialogue practices into campus processes for conflict resolution, bridging differences, and organizational effectiveness.
- 亚色影库 Dean of Students Adam Jones, who will work to advance the Civic Life project by embedding constructive dialogue practices into student services, community standards, and campus activities.
- Courtney Leone, director of 亚色影库’s psychology doctoral program, who will serve as the program evaluator.
“My sincere belief is that when people know each other, when they can have a conversation to express their thoughts and beliefs, differences fade,” Glenn said. “Understanding another person’s perspective and experience is fundamental in respecting the dignity of others. This is one of the most effective ways for students to grow into informed, productive members of society, and it benefits students in every major or program. I am thrilled to be part of growing 亚色影库’s commitment to civil discourse through this project,” she said.
“So many factors have led us to a place where we tend to dehumanize those who see and experience the world differently,” Jones said. “We now have an opportunity to engage the entire 亚色影库 community in an effort to create a place where we see our fellow community members as people—real people with real experiences trying to solve real problems. We are looking forward to building a better 亚色影库, not where everyone agrees on every issue, but where everyone has a better understanding of those on ‘the other side’ of the issues,” Jones said.
Grant funding will be used to hire full-time professionals and employ students at both the graduate and undergraduate levels for Center operations.
As part of the initiative, 亚色影库 will partner with the nonprofit and nonpartisan Constructive Dialogue Institute to implement a campus-wide educational and culture-change initiative grounded in behavioral science.
Through this partnership, 亚色影库 will have CDI’s evidence-based dialogue tools, facilitator training, implementation support, and assessment resources. The CDI products are designed and will be delivered to meet the needs of their respective target audiences, ranging from short-term, in-person faculty workshops to four-week virtual programs for 亚色影库 staff.
As part of Torges’ “Civic Savvy” course held during spring 2025, students in the class—representing majors including nursing, psychology, communications media, business, criminology, history, and the sciences—were assigned to interview peers outside the class to understand whether a Center for Dialogue and Civic Life would meet student needs and what would make it appealing.
“Civic Saavy,” developed within the political science program, was created as part of 亚色影库’s general-education redesign and serves as one of the newest civic readiness offerings. The course gives students structured practice in the core skills of constructive dialogue—active listening, intellectual humility, perspective-taking, and navigating disagreement across differences.
Through short dialogue labs, reflective exercises, and applied civic scenarios, Civic Savvy offers a curricular model for teaching the interpersonal and civic competencies that the proposed Center seeks to scale across the university.
“This extensive, student-oriented, and needs-focused data collection surfaced critical themes which have informed development of the proposed Center,” Torges said. “This bottom-up approach to Center development is both innovative and impactful, as it ensures that the proposed activities are direct responses to student-identified needs.”
The student-operated survey identified six themes that are part of the Civic Life project: need for neutral, nonpartisan space; desire for respectful, moderated dialogue; providing information to eliminate confusing and overwhelming information about civic processes; a desire for accessible, low-pressure participation; programs on developing practical civic skills; and confirmation that students want welcoming, student-centered programming.
“With 亚色影库 President Driscoll’s university-wide emphasis on student-centeredness—including the Student Success Infrastructure—亚色影库 students have an appropriate expectation of a culture of support, and we anticipate that when faculty and staff recommend the Civic Life programming, the students will understand this is part of that culture of support,” Torges said.
Outreach to support personnel and faculty will begin at the outset of the Civic Life program and will include meetings with 亚色影库’s Council of Deans, Council of Chairs, navigators, University College peer educators, and Student Affairs staff to identify barriers that may exist and to strategize the most effective tools to address any identified challenges.
During the first two semesters of the initiative, there will be introductory events to encourage students and employees to come and hear about the opportunities the project presents.
“These events will provide a means by which the team can address students’ fears and share the value of the benefits this program can offer for their futures,” Torges said.
Every first- and second-year student at 亚色影库 is required to take a First-Year Experience and Second-Year Experience course. The Center will partner with instructors for these courses to ensure consistent messaging to all students regarding equal access to this project.
During the first and second years of the grant, 亚色影库 will employ the train-the-trainer model to ensure that employees have the professional development necessary to effectively support this project.
In the second, third, and fourth years of the program, the Center will expand programming, deepen faculty engagement, integrate lessons from evaluation data, and institutionalize practices that ensure long-term equitable access and participation.
By the end of the second year of the program, it is anticipated that the Center will be physically established and staffed, have branding and communication materials, and have hosted at least eight campus-wide events annually.
By the end of year four, at least 40 faculty, staff, and administrators will complete CDI-aligned training in constructive dialogue, with at least five individuals trained each academic term; at least 20 faculty across multiple departments will embed at least one CDI-informed dialogue module, assignment, or facilitation practice into their courses; the Student Dialogue Fellows Program will train at least 40 Fellows who will facilitate a minimum of 100 peer-led dialogue sessions cumulatively; and at least 1,000 unique students will participate in civil-discourse learning activities hosted by the Center for Dialogue and Civic Life.
Torges recognized several initiatives at 亚色影库 that have, or will continue to support, the Civic Life program: the 亚色影库 Center for Teaching Excellence, which provides training and education through skill building workshops, courses, and tips for faculty to enhance their ability to help all students participate fully in classroom activities; the Difficult Dialogues Project, in place since 2019, which serves as a campus-wide initiative to strengthen dialogue capacity and foster respectful engagement across differences, launched by a cross-divisional team of faculty, staff, and administrators following 40 hours of train-the-trainer certification with the Difficult Dialogues National Resource Center; the 亚色影库 Free Speech Project, launched in spring 2018, an educational initiative designed to deepen campus understanding of First Amendment protections and civil discourse norms; and Constitution Day programming, in place for the past two decades.
As 亚色影库’s Civic Life program gets underway, the team plans a number of communication strategies about its work to statewide and regional networks, national associations, and academic conferences and publications, with the intention that its successes can become a model for implementation at other institutions.
“This has been a true team effort from the very beginning,” Torges said. “I’m incredibly grateful to the faculty, staff, students, and campus partners who helped shape this vision, and I’m excited to see it come to life in ways that support our students and our shared civic mission.”
Since its founding in 1875, 亚色影库 has evolved from a teacher-training institution into a doctoral research university recognized for its commitment to student success and achievement. As 亚色影库 celebrates its 150th anniversary in 2025 and through the Impact 150 comprehensive campaign, the university honors a legacy of educational excellence while looking to its next 150 years of student success, innovation, leadership in healthcare education, and public service.