Amid Tensions, Sensible Students Push for Civil Discourse

Over the past week, I’ve had challenging conversations with many students. While they recognize that Donald Trump won re-election fairly and that the country’s mood differs from the campus atmosphere, they still feel frustrated and anxious. I try to reassure them that our future is bright and that we live in a great country, yet many remain unconvinced. One despondent student asked for some good news, and I was glad to share this: Gen Z is rising to the occasion. They are fed up with polarization and eager to foster dialogue; they want to embrace intellectual diversity more fully; they want to push for progress in our political landscape and move beyond the paralysis in the political arena.

I told my student that this engagement has already begun and that I am now quite optimistic as many students are feeling far more comfortable speaking openly as a result of the 2024 election. One example that pre-dates the Trump victory involves BridgeUSA, which was founded in 2016 by a group of university students who were concerned “about the increasing political division, extremism, and lack of empathy they were seeing on their campuses.” Recognizing the need to have real conversations and the fact that students cannot “coexist if we cannot talk to each other,” chapters were started at the University of Notre Dame, the University of Colorado Boulder, and the University of California Berkeley, and have grown to over 50 college campuses and scores of high schools. BridgeUSA’s events are multi-partisan, and they strive to teach both empathy and listening skills so that younger Americans can connect with others who hold divergent socio-political views. A student at Oregon State has described these programs by noting that, “Bridge conversations are nothing like contentious political family dinners . . . or debates, but conversations of mutual understanding.’’

Efforts to bring students together are not limited to just BridgeUSA, however.

Numerous student actions are emerging nationwide, and student-led groups are modeling positive, community-oriented behavior. Since President Trump’s re-election, the Boston College Republicans, for instance, released a statement that shared that conservative students on campus have been subjected to verbal abuse online and on campus since the election. The group declared, “We will no longer sit idly by while unhinged people openly defame the character of students who voted for President Trump. This intimidation and hate speech should not be tolerated and we call upon all students, faculty, and staff to reflect on their harmful words.” Rather than call for harm, violence, disruptions, or destruction—as is often the case at schools like Columbia and Sarah Lawrence among those progressive camps —the College Republicans asked for contemplation and “unity both on campus and in the greater BC community.” The Boston College Republicans smartly want political dialogue instead of ad hominem attacks—attacks which are “unbecoming of the BC community.”

It is refreshing to see a group that “encourage[s] respectful political discussion” and believes that “it is time for our community to come together around our shared values as Americans.”

I’m also seeing a powerful pushback on my campus against illiberal cancel culture. At Sarah Lawrence, where I teach, students are finally challenging the Students for Justice in Palestine group, unafraid of being “canceled” or labeled “Nazis.” They’ve had enough of the school’s culture being distorted by extreme leftist groups. Beyond Sarah Lawrence, at the University of Michigan, the student government overwhelmingly voted to impeach its president and vice-president for hijacking the agenda and diverting funds toward anti-Israel causes, citing incitement of violence, cyber theft, and dereliction of duty. Even at Columbia University, on Veterans Day, student veterans stood firm against an attempt to “reclaim” the day for Palestinians in Gaza—proudly displaying American flags and refusing to be silenced.

The veterans did not offer a huge response to the illiberal protests. About 30 student veterans showed up to stand against the so-called “Martyrs Day” demonstration, which was organized by the unsanctioned student group Columbia University Apartheid Divest and characterized the federal holiday as an abomination and U.S. vets as killers. The student veteran’s actions represented a change; no longer can these intolerant, offensive, un-American protestors go about making demands, disrupting campus and communal life, and harming a school’s reputation and go unchecked. As one of the Veteran organizers stated to the press, “The main goal was to take oxygen away from it and focus on the veterans who are celebrating Veterans Day at the Veterans Day Parade.” Veteran’s Day is “a celebration of veteran’s pride.” The Veteran organizers noted that they “didn’t break a single rule” and instead responded by waving American flags on campus to the “faculty members give us the middle finger … [and to] the students with keffiyehs on their faces trying to intimidate us … we kept our composure.”

While these post-election actions may seem small, the students are holding their ground and standing up for free expression; they deserve our support and praise. They represent a shift—sensible, thoughtful students are moving from the sidelines into the center of the fight for campus freedom. This could help re-center collegiate life around reasonable ideas and voices. Over a century ago, President Theodore Roosevelt reminded us, “It is not the critic who counts … the credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood … who spends himself in a worthy cause.” The question now is whether today’s students will rise to the occasion, step into the arena, and carry this momentum forward. I believe they will.

Image of the reinstated Gaza Solidarity Encampment at Columbia University on Wikiemedia Commons