Campus Dialogue – Now is the time to unite for dialogue
The 2024 fall semester promises to be a highly contentious period on college campuses around the United States. The increased polarization in the country is leading to protests and clashes nationally. Colleges are struggling to balance the protection of academic freedom and free speech with the need to prevent discrimination and create an inclusive and safe environment for all campus community members. Antisemitism and Islamophobia are on the rise, with the Israeli–Palestinian conflict driving further divisions and clashes.
This context creates a significant opportunity for Universities to promote constructive and safe dialogue and harness the power of activated students to address some of the key divides on campus. By tackling the hot-button issues – antisemitism/islamophobia, free speech/hate speech, Israel-Palestine and the 2024 elections – through constructive dialogue, those Universities can equip their community members to build trusting relationships across differences and collaborate around their shared interests.
At Soliya, we have started engaging with a number of those Universities where we have facilitated several pilot groups of diverse students to engage in constructive dialogue over the Israel – Palestine topic as well as broader topics like free speech and racism. Those pilots have been successful and we are ready to expand those initiatives at the campus level for current and incoming students. Faculty members are also often caught in the same divisions and tensions that affect students and need to be included in those efforts.
We are going to mobilize our community of US-based facilitators and trainers as well as those who are very experienced and attuned to the US context, and we are also looking forward to expanding this community so we can respond to this difficult moment. No doubt this dialogue will be challenging for different reasons. First, the level of personal connections that so many people feel to this topic and this region of the world make it not just a matter of conflicting opinions but one of high levels of identity threats and even of survival. Second, the complexity of the situation with such divergent narratives over the history and current events makes it almost impossible to agree on facts. Third, the magnitude of this topic, the oldest active conflict in the world in a land so central to the World’s monotheistic religions, creates a heavy symbolic charge to any conversation. Lastly, the decision to even participate in a dialogue with people who hold different views is a challenge for many. Dialogue still suffers from much prejudice, as being a tool for normalization or unacceptable compromise.
However, the type of dialogue we promote is one where changing minds or ‘solving’ issues is not the end goal, moving away from talking in concepts, and bringing us back to our stories and personal experiences, where listening and being heard are key, even if we hold radically different perspectives, without compromising our fundamental values, needs and rights. Our dialogue is not meant to “appease” or “legitimize” anger or fear but to enable civic engagement without violence. It enables participants to speak about their concerns and aspirations with openness and honesty, while facilitators ensure that this is never taken advantage of. It is not a renouncement of either freedom or security. It is not blind to power dynamics but acknowledges them and allows the group to work on reducing them. It does not compete with other tools such as activism or nonviolent action, but can work hand in hand with them to effect positive change in society.
At Soliya, we are reinforcing not only our dialogue model and tools but also our ways of communicating around dialogue. Our training will seek to connect the tools with the concrete dynamics on campuses and prepare both campus facilitators and Soliya’s facilitators to navigate very charged interactions and complex dynamics. We will also accompany campuses in elaborating sound convening strategies and communication plans so those initiatives don’t appear as threatening to people’s need for security and justice.
During this time, our international programs, Connect Program and Global Circles, are also more needed than ever. They will continue to build a transnational culture of constructive dialogue and inform facilitators and participants alike of the continuously evolving dynamics of global events and conversations. We hope you continue to support this mission, wherever you are.
- Rafael Tyszblat, Director Innovation and Design