Want a Civil Campus Climate? Let Students in on the Discussion

Madison, Wis.—October 30—The primary goal of higher education isn’t to protect students from difficult emotions and conversations. It’s to seek truth and knowledge. Yet an uncivil environment can make it difficult for anyone to learn. What’s the right balance?

Students need to have a role in how institutions answer this question, said Gary Pavela during the recent Magna Publications online seminar “Creating and Maintaining a Climate of Civility on Campus.” Helping students become “First Amendment practitioners” prepares them for handling conflict in the wider world, said Pavela, who teaches in the honors program at the University of Maryland and writes higher education law and policy newsletters.

During the online seminar Pavela also asserted the following:

1. Although sometimes the specifics of civil behavior depend on culture, the human need for guidelines in social interactions does not.
2. Civility and truth-seeking can be—but are not always—at odds with one another.
3. Keep education in mind when making and enforcing rules.
4. Examples matter more than precepts.
5. The design of the physical and social environment matters.

If you missed the online seminar and would like to purchase a transcript or recording, visit www.magnapubs.com/catalog/cds/598611-1.html.