CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — I’m sitting in the well-appointed Illini Union Ballroom on a sunny, late-October afternoon.
My current mood: anxious.
Sure, our 20th-ranked Illinois football team is taking on No. 1 Oregon this weekend, but that’s not on my mind right now. (Turns out my pregame butterflies were well founded.)
Pre-election jitters are foremost, with each day’s news cycle bringing more disquieting developments about our nation’s bitter political divide.
But seated nearby are more than 70 undergraduate students, mostly political science majors, and a handful of facilitators from the nonprofit group Braver Angels, whose goal is to teach tomorrow’s leaders how to effectively facilitate dialogue across party lines in our polarized political landscape.
The half-day workshop is part of The Richard G. & Carole J. Cline Symposium, an annual event sponsored by the Cline Center for Advanced Social Research that invites prominent thought-leaders to address the Urbana campus community on topics of public significance.
“The Cline Symposium has established itself as one of the most visible and prestigious annual public events on the Urbana campus in that it brings together community members, faculty and faculty-nominated students to discuss important and timely issues,” says Scott Althaus, the Merriam Professor of Political Science at Illinois and director of the Cline Center for Advanced Social Research.
Previously, the symposium was organized around keynote speakers and roundtable panels designed to educate student participants on important topics of the day. This year, the center introduced a new, more immersive format to help students build effective skills when speaking with others about political differences, Althaus tells me.
Instead of interacting with a roundtable of national experts, the assembled students split up into two groups: one, a workshop led by Braver Angels facilitators where the students learn and hone “skills for disagreeing better;” the other, a facilitated debate between students on topical issues.
“We thought this change in format might be a better way to engage student participants in this year’s theme of ‘Bridging Political Differences in a Polarized World,’” Althaus says.
After a break, the groups switched activities so that participants can engage in both skills-building activities. To cap off the event, everyone gathers for a discussion about what they learned.
The Braver Angels “Disagreeing Better” workshop stems from the schism that erupted after the 2016 presidential election and is based on marriage and family counseling sessions, according to the organizers.
As an observer, I hear phrases such as “suspend your inner critic about their argument in order to understand each other” and “build a connection” frequently bandied about during the discussion.
I think to myself that it’s good preparation for potentially contentious Thanksgiving dinner discussions.
“I think it’s a really important skill to have, to be able to talk to someone across the aisle and give them my ideas while also not badgering them or blatantly disagreeing with them,” she tells me. “There’s definitely some de-escalation skills in the way that you form how you’re going to structure your sentences and your ideas. Saying, ‘I hear you, thank you for sharing’ — those types of things could not only de-escalate a conversation but potentially put the other person at ease.”
Emma Murphy, a senior from Homewood, Illinois, double majoring in political science and gender and women’s studies, says the workshop with the Braver Angels helped her to foster better communications skills “with people with whom I may disagree.”
Murphy says the experience was worthwhile, even for those who don’t necessarily want to go into politics after graduation.
“I think it’s applicable to a wide variety of jobs, because you may end up working with or for someone whose views you don’t necessarily share,” she says. “In those situations, you can’t just disregard their feedback.”
Ultimately, it was a great learning experience, especially for someone who wants to chart a path in politics and government after graduation, she says.
“I feel like I’ve surrounded myself with a lot of people with whom I agree,” Murphy says. “I think that’s easy to do on a college campus, especially if you’re involved in politics. It was nice to have people at my table who lean more on the conservative side, so I could hear what they have to say. It was a very constructive and well-presented workshop, and it was interesting hearing the perspectives of the other people who spoke.”
And with that, I have a new current mood: hopeful, even in a highly polarized season of politics.
