Call it “civil discourse” 2.0.
Hunter College is recruiting 30 students to learn the skills of “constructive dialogue,” which teaches speakers how to maintain civility while talking to each other across differences in perspectives, cultures, and ideas.
The students, who will be selected from among the leaders of campus clubs, will individually take a course, “Perspectives,” through the Constructive Dialogue Institute's website. In the fall, faculty members will join the effort.
“The goal of the leadership training is to prepare students on campus to both engage and facilitate conversations on difficult topics,” said Collin L. Craig, assistant dean of the graduate programs and curriculum, who is administering the effort. “We want to prepare our students to be able to think critically about opposing viewpoints and to be able to participate in both academic and broader public discourses about topics that are not just controversial but that are meaningful to them.”
The effort builds on the “Civil Discourse and Intellectual Dialogue” series of lectures and discussions held this academic year, which tackled controversial subjects such as the Middle East conflict, immigration, and trans participation in team sports. It is part of a CUNY-wide program announced last fall by Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez being rolled out across the university.
“As the most diverse university system in the nation, CUNY has an important role to play in helping individuals navigate conversations. College is a place for the curious, those who want to broaden their horizons and learn from each other, but that can’t happen without the tools to engage in respectful dialogue,” Matos Rodríguez said.
The training will focus on providing leadership skills for conflict resolution, as well as developing a campus climate that supports a culture of trust and dialogue. Participants will be challenged to reflect on how they have navigated recent conflicts on their campuses and learn how to broaden the strategies they use in addressing disputes. The training will explore how constructive conversations can serve as tools to combat hate.
Constructive dialogue draws on insights from behavioral psychology to foster an understanding of the physiological reactions and mental biases that underlie the human tendency to argue over disagreements. Once speakers recognize such biases and reactions, they can adjust their behavior to smooth interactions.
“We live in a complicated, interconnected world surrounded by astonishing technology,” according to the “Perspectives” course. “But our most important piece of tech — our brain — hasn’t updated fast enough to keep up. In many ways, our ancient brains are poorly suited for the modern world.”
“Perspectives” seeks to teach “five proven skills for constructive dialogue”:
- Let go of winning
- Ask questions to understand
- Share your story and invite others to do the same
- Make yourself and others feel heard
- Find what’s shared
CUNY supporters, the Jeffrey H. and Shari L. Aronson Family Foundation and the Carroll and Milton Petrie Foundation, are funding the program.
