American University president Jon Alger asked a crowd of more than 100 people packed into the Hall of Science on October 21 for the launch of the Civic Life to look around at the faces gathered in the room.

“All of us have important roles in developing an environment in which everyone feels welcome and included,” Alger said. “Democracy is not a spectator sport.”

Alger acknowledged the entire campus community will have a role in the university-wide initiative centered on civic education, engagement, and civil dialogue.

“I always tell students to dream big,” he said. “I want all of us to dream big about how we can take this institution to an even higher level by being a model of how change really happens—not just with slogans, or posters, or rhetoric—but with the hard work of honoring and building on the foundation of our common humanity.”

Alger’s comments were followed by a panel discussion with experts from across campus about how to foster dialogue amid disagreement and a festival with campus partners, food, and giveaways. The featured voices included:

• Moderator and SPA professor Tom Merrill, chair of the Civic Life steering committee, urged the AU community to find ways to disagree respectfully. “When we disagree with each other with reasons, evidence, and attempts to understand the person we’re talking to, we demonstrate—and not simply in a performative way—that we respect . . . the person that we’re talking to.”
• SOE senior professorial lecturer Ocheze Joseph, director of undergraduate programs, said she looks at disagreement as a learning opportunity. “I talk too much and I talk to strangers too much, but the reason I do that is because I like to learn from others. I believe that dialogue and disagreement humanizes us. It helps us to recognize and understand that we all have different experiences, different religions, different backgrounds. It opens up that opportunity for us to learn from each other.”
• Leaning on lessons from sports, deputy athletics director Katie Benoit said a team doesn’t reach its common goal without navigating disagreement. “We have such an amazing opportunity here because this institution draws people from all over the world. What an exceptional thing to be a part of. Why wouldn’t we want to learn from that and grow?. . . Disagreement is great, because without it, we’re not getting better.”
• CAS psychology professor Tony Ahrens told the audience that disagreement is a fundamental part of life and research. “For me, the role of disagreement is a check against my own ignorance. I see the world as a spotlight. I can see what I can see in that spotlight and everything else is invisible to me. . . . I have to know what it is that I don’t know. I can’t know that without disagreement.”
• SPA senior professorial lecturer Lara Schwartz, director of the Project on Civic Dialogue, explained there’s an important difference between disagreement and conflict. “What happens in class discussions is always just disagreement. We aren’t in classes to come to a conclusion. We’re in classrooms to understand. When you’re in a classroom, you’re just there to inquire. The chances that you’re in a conflict are very low and that’s when we can take a deep breath, lean in, and say, ‘I am going to take this opportunity to truly understand this disagreement, knowing that I might take that understanding into the actual conflicts in the political world.’”

During the event, Alger also announced the inaugural cohort of the Civic Life Student Fellows. The undergraduate and graduate students will receive leadership training and work closely with faculty and university leaders to serve as ambassadors for the Civic Life.

They are:

• Maria Paula Ardila Rangel, SIS/MA ’26
• Esperonto Bean, SOC/MA ’25
• Tina Brimo, SOE/EdD ’27
• Tyler Brown-Dewese, SPA/BA ’25
• Tyler Eliades, SPA/MA ’25
• Brodie Gardner, SPA/BA ’28
• Samuel Gilio, SPA/BA ’27
• Amishai Goodman-Goldstein, SPA/BA ’25
• Carla Grinstead, SIS/MA ’25
• Ethan Han, SOE/MAT ’25
• Sean Hanley, SIS/BA ’25

• Marilys Jn-Baptiste, SPA/BA ’28 

• Kari Jones Shapley, WCL/MLS ’25
• George Kagler, SPA/BA ’25
• Geoff Kelly, CAS/BA ‘25
• Laila Kirkpatrick, SPA/BA ’28
• Kuleema Kuteh, SIS/MA ’26
• Katharine Lewis, SPA/BA ’25
• Krystal Lindsey, SOE/EdD ’26
• Claire McCafferty, CAS-SPA/BA ’26
• Michael McGee-McCoy, CAS/BA ’27
• England Meadows, SPA/BA, CAS/BS ’27
• Khang Nguyen, CAS/BA ’26
• Lily Nuckolls, Kogod/BS ’25
• Caroline Pirrone, SPA/BA ’25
• Beverly Popoola, Kogod/MS ’26
• Ridha Rayani, SOC-SPA/BA ’28
• Julie Remy, Kogod/BS ’28
• Tom Snyder, SPA/BA ’27
• Morgan Spencer, SPA/BA ’27
• Janos Szani, SIS/BA ’25
• Luc Thomas, SIS-SPA/BA ’27
• Sharon Wanyana, Kogod/MS ’26
• Daniel Zuzovsky SPA/BA ’28

England Meadows, SPA/BA, CAS/BS ’27, said she’s excited to be part of this work.

“Events like these can be performative, but seeing the amount of people that were invested in this was inspiring,” said Meadows. “We think of education as very vertical—it’s normally teacher to student—but they are leveling the playing field and making education more horizontal.”