UWEC professor discusses how civil dialogue skills are built up at the university

EAU CLAIRE — For UW-Eau Claire Psychology Professor April Bleske-Rechek, being able to engage in civil dialogue is a chance to engage with others and learn from different perspectives.
As part of an ongoing conversation, one question that is asked of universities is whether students are given the opportunities to engage in civil dialogue and free expression. As part of a survey that was conducted across the Universities of Wisconsin in fall of 2022, Bleske-Rechek said the results gave some insight into students' perspectives on the matter.
'What that data showed is that a lot of students are not comfortable with speaking up on campus and in their classrooms, especially when it comes to controversial issues,' she said. 'Maybe this has always been the case — I don't know — but it has only been in the last few years that people have really started to ask how comfortable are students speaking up in the classroom on controversial topics.
'There were some pretty robust group differences. For example, students who are even moderate or somewhat conservative feel extra not comfortable speaking up, and there was even some data in there to suggest that students who are politically liberal know that students who are conservative are not comfortable speaking up.'
As part of an initiative to help students build up skills to participate in discussions that may be on controversial topics, efforts at UW-Eau Claire have been on building up those skills and participating in discussions and civic engagement.
A study of Bleske-Rechek's recently published in January by the SNF Ithaca Initiative detailed some of her findings, with the paper being titled 'Promoting Students' Engagement with Civil Dialogue.'
Supported by the UW-Eau Claire Foundation, Bleske-Rechek took part in a pilot study in the fall of 2023 on the effectiveness of the Unify America College Bowl, a program that pairs students with different political beliefs for a guided conversation. But one difficulty for her was with participation, noting that many students she talked to had anxieties or fears about participating, felt that they did not have strong enough political opinions to articulate their beliefs or believed that they were not especially skilled at articulating their point.
'Yet when they do it, they feel like it was worthwhile,' she said.
Data from continuing years showed that roughly 76% of attendees said they are more comfortable having face to face conversations with people who have different viewpoints and 75% said they place more value on different viewpoints from their own.
'I think when you have the opportunity to engage in conversation with somebody who isn't likely to share all of their views, you actually get the sense that they are just another American who is going about their business and wants people to get along, and you don't have to agree about everything,' said Bleske-Rechek. 'And just because you disagree about one thing doesn't mean you disagree about everything. But, you don't ever know that unless you choose to engage.'
In another vein of encouraging civil dialogue, students have organized a local chapter of BridgeUSA at the university named BridgeEauClaire.
'The club is the 'anti-debate' club, in that the goal is not to win in a fight over polarized topics but to understand other perspectives and constructively share opinions,' Assistant Professor of Political Science and club advisor Adam Kunz said in a press release from the university. 'BridgeEauClaire has allowed students to discuss important topics without feeling the pressure of putting a partisan label on their beliefs.'
As part of their model, BridgeUSA says their mission is to 'empower young people to engage in constructive dialogue and disagreement to improve the quality of politics' on their website.
'If more faculty and administrators can encourage their students to participate in these activities, UWEC can be a Universities of Wisconsin leader in helping students break out of echo chambers and algorithmic, profit-driven partisan traps,' Kunz said in the press release.
With a focus on how to encourage and bolster civil dialogue, part of the work is to see how skills can be built up to encourage conversations on pressing and relevant topics. Bleske-Rechek said there is a desirable difficulty with these conversations, as having opportunities and encouraging engagement may help overcome the difficulty.
'UW-Eau Claire has a long tradition of bringing national and international thought leaders to campus so our community can engage with the most pressing topics of the time,' UWEC Chancellor James Schmidt said in a press release. 'New experiences, like participation in the Unify America College Bowl or a BridgeEauClaire event, may help more of today's students develop the skills and confidence needed to engage in respectful discussions even when they know their classmates may hold different beliefs.'

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