University of Wisconsin Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin announced April 23 her participation in College Presidents for Civic Preparedness, a consortium of 60 university leaders working to bolster student engagement in well-informed discourse.
The Institute for Citizens and Scholars — a nonprofit dedicated to cultivating networks that develop young people as effective citizens — convened the consortium. Participants are encouraged to reflect the institute’s shared civic commitments — educating for democracy, preparing students for a vibrant, diverse and contentious society and protecting free inquiry, according to the organization’s website.
Institute for Citizens and Scholars President Raj Vinnatoka said in an email statement to The Badger Herald that university leaders participating in the consortium are initiating numerous efforts to directly engage students, including at UW.
Participants in this consortium believe it is higher education’s responsibility to provide students with critical civic skills, Vinnakota said.
The Institute works to uphold education as a public good in order to ensure young people are ready to enter the public sphere and become effective leaders, Vinnakota said.
“In an increasingly polarized society, many students are encountering diversity for the first time on a tangible, personal, daily basis,” Vinnakota said. “It’s a critical time when they need to develop the skills, habits, practices, and norms to live in a multicultural and interconnected democracy.”
The Discussion Project, which was founded in 2017 to advance this goal at UW, seeks to engage students in productive dialogue that exposes them to different perspectives.
The Discussion Project Program Director Lynn Glueck said it’s mission is to help instructors facilitate high-quality classroom discussion to improve student engagement.
As part of the Mnookin’s work with College Presidents for Civic Preparedness, The Discussion Project has begun Deliberation Dinners, where students will have the opportunity to engage in constructive discourse along with peers coming from diverse backgrounds.
“It’s not a debate, it’s really a discussion where you’re inquiring into ideas and asking, ‘Here’s this issue, but what should we do?’” Glueck said. “The point isn’t to come to a consensus on what to do, it’s to just dig in and think about all of the options, weigh them, and learn together.”
UW Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Lori Reesor said April 23 that in regards to protests and demonstrations, the fall 2024 semester will be “absolutely very busy.”
Vinnatoka said the shared set of civic commitments created by the Insitute provide guidance to university leaders on valuing free expression — including ideas that some people may consider offensive or wrong. Vinnatoka said these principles also work to ensure free expression is not an open license for speech that is intentionally abusive, harassing, discriminatory or harmful to others.
“It does so by prioritizing free inquiry, subjecting views to the scrutiny of others, creating an argument, and a base of evidence with the power to persuade,” Vinnatoka said. “That’s what free inquiry does – elevate a speech right into a civic discipline.”
