AAC&U’s Institute for Democracy in Higher Education (IDHE) has teamed up with the Sustained Dialogue Campus Network team to host a free “help desk” to offer timely advice—troubleshooting—to campus educators and practitioners facing difficult, confounding, new, frightening, nasty, threatening, and other conflicts and challenging conversations. These can come up in the classroom, in administrative decision-making, in cocurricular programming, and even when engaging communities off campus. And with a contentious election providing context for the fall semester, we anticipate a need among educators.
All inquiries are confidential. Our team of nine experienced scholars and practitioners are ready to help.
Submit an Inquiry
Here are some questions we have been asked already: What is my job—providing neutral spaces for learning or designing learning experiences to advance socio-economic mobility? How do I manage the student who has plenty of opinions, but no facts to back them up? How should I handle provocateurs who want airtime in my class, but fail to live up to academic standards or behavioral norms? Why would my students shut down during discussions, and what can I do about it? How do I ensure that my classroom welcomes all perspectives, but also adheres to standards of truth and decency? Where can I go to find…? Send us your inquiries, and we’ll get back to you.