Projects / San José State University,
To Increase the University’s Capacity to Support Open Discussion of Controversial Issues
PI: Robert Cooper, Associate Vice President of Undergraduate Studies.
Location: Office of Undergraduate Studies.
San José State University will embark on an eighteen-month project with two basic aims: to prepare a core of individual students, faculty and professional staff who can take on leadership roles in facilitating dialogues; and integrate difficult dialogues into the curriculum in a developmentally appropriate way, supported by co-curricular opportunities. From a strategic perspective, the project begins with entering students (first-time college students and transfer students) to set the stage for continued growth throughout their education. The aim is to create multiple opportunities for students, faculty and staff to engage in such dialogues, both across the curriculum and beyond the classroom, creating ways to sustain and institutionalize the work of enhancing a campus climate of openness and respect. Key project activities will include student and faculty dialogue-facilitation programs; campus forums on issues related to religious and cultural diversity in the local context; and development of a curriculum module for the First-Year Experience program (seminars and co-curricular support for entering first-year and transfer students). An initial pool of 25 faculty, student and professional staff leaders will be prepared to facilitate difficult dialogues and to help plan, implement and assess project efforts. In the end, the university expects to create an infrastructure to sustain and expand project efforts and to disseminate project results.
See the project's site here.