Abstract: Until recently, East Carolina University (ECU) had a small culture of marches, protests, and other free speech actions. However, police-involved shootings in Ferguson, Missouri, and Baltimore, followed by the 2016 summer of violence with the mass shooting in Orlando and more police-involved shootings in New York, Chicago, Minnesota, and Texas, dramatically changed the culture at ECU. During the 2016-17 academic year, ECU student organizations hosted more than 25 campus protests and demonstrations—relatively few compared to other institutions, but a large increase for our campus community. Even with wide-ranging topics — from Black Lives Matter to Turning Point USA speakers and rallies from Donald Trump and Bill Clinton — ECU experienced virtually no disruptions in service. Indeed, when the infamous “send her back” chant directed at Rep. Ilhan Omar emerged at a Trump rally on ECU’s campus, our institution found ways to quickly manage the fallout and move forward. Why? Civil discourse.
Through the combination of activities, events, and programmatic efforts, ECU has built a culture that actively engages students in conversations around difficult topics, building an inclusive climate with an eye toward institutionalization. This focused case-study explores how one campus devised comprehensive strategies to address student engagement and direct that interest into the college, community, civic, and public arenas. Specifically, this manuscript will address three broad campus-level efforts around civil discourse, voter mobilization, and democratic educational initiatives.
This three-part model includes both short-term student programs and long-term best practices. Our civil discourse efforts illustrate that teaching students within collegiate settings to deliberate and debate important societal issues assists them in their identity development as well as connects them to their civic responsibilities. Civil dialogues teach our students how to constructively disagree, but also encourage valuable skill development such as listening, counterpoint development, and compromise.
SEE: McCunney, D., Tuchmayer, J. B., Kermiet, T., Stansbury, C., & Kneubuehl, E. (2020). Managing “send her back”: Civil discourse and educating for democracy as campus culture. eJournal of Public Affairs, 9(1), 28-42.