Campuswide Initiative Promotes Civil Discourse
Ohio Wesleyan is one of the nation's first colleges to prepare its entire campus to navigate difficult conversations. Through a partnership with the nonprofit Constructive Dialogue Institute, OWU is providing civil discourse training to every OWU student and employee.
"With a contentious election, wars around the globe, and division across our country," says OWU Provost Karlyn Crowley, "we must use this year as a unique teaching moment and work as a campus to learn how to listen, to understand, and to share in constructive dialogue. Ohio Wesleyan will be a national model for how we preserve democracy."
President Matt vandenBerg says OWU is CDI's most comprehensive liberal arts partner. "Our entire campus is all-in on this effort. The current state of our world required bold action, and we took it. We are working to spearhead meaningful change in civil discourse."
vandenBerg says the CDI collaboration enhances Ohio Wesleyan's legacy of preparing students to become engaged citizens working toward the common good.