It is much lamented that college students from across the ideological spectrum can’t talk to one another about issues like they used to, and college students from across the ideological spectrum recently gathered in Delaware—to talk to one another about this issue.
This fall, more than 70 college students from 34 institutions around the United States came together for a dialogue on civil discourse at an event hosted by the University of Delaware’s Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Ithaca Initiative. It drew students from public and private universities, community colleges, and historically Black colleges, including students engaged in the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University and SNF Paideia Program at the University of Pennsylvania.
This fourth National Student Dialogue, which featured a conversation between Vogue correspondent Jack Schlossberg, grandson of President John F. Kennedy, and University of Delaware Biden Institute Chair Valerie Biden Owens, provided an opportunity for students to grapple collaboratively with the challenges civil discourse faces on their campuses.
The SNF Ithaca Initiative at University of Delaware Joseph R. Biden, Jr. School of Public Policy & Administration seeks to foster the foundational skills and attitudes that allow civil discourse to flourish and help students become engaged citizen-leaders.