Davidson College Institute for Public Good Wins Historic $4M Federal Grant to Foster Civil Debate

The award by the U.S. Department of Education ranks as the largest competitive government grant in the college’s history. It places Davidson and the IPG at the forefront of fostering constructive disagreement and shared understandings, one of the most urgent challenges facing higher education and democracy. The college aims to help narrow a divide in society that threatens the nation’s unity on the eve of its 250th birthday. 

The Institute for Public Good, launched just five months ago, plans to use the four-year grant to help students and educators at campuses nationwide build the capacity to: dig out accurate and reliable information, convene difficult conversations on controversial topics and figure out a path forward. 

Davidson’s IPG plans to create the Deliberative Citizenship Network across 100 colleges and universities that will be identified and connected as the effort moves forward. The institute will, through this network: 

• Help train faculty and staff at those schools in facilitating forums on difficult topics and weaving those strategies into classroom conversations.
• Support student-led teams that want to hold discussions and debates around contested public issues.
• Gather partners from the various institutions to share successful tools and approaches.
• Produce tools, teaching resources and ways to assess results that are shared publicly online. 

“With this funding, we will reach thousands of students and educators nationwide,” said Chris Marsicano, the IPG’s executive director. “Davidson’s Institute for Public Good will serve as a national hub that connects research, teaching and public engagement around respectful inclusion across political viewpoints—no matter how unpopular on campus—as well as participating in community efforts to examine, talk through and solve big problems.”

Former U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings said Davidson is distinctively positioned to help forge collaboration across differences.

“Americans want our leaders to work together to solve our most challenging problems and Davidson plays an outsized role in preparing new generations to do that by elevating both leadership and service," Spellings said. “This new grant to the Institute for Public Good will keep Davidson at the forefront of the urgent need to build respectful dialogue and a focus on problem solving on college campuses and beyond.”

Anthony Foxx ’93, former Charlotte mayor and former U.S. secretary of transportation, said the future of campuses and communities depends on raising their capacity to disagree while still living, learning and working together. 

“This grant is a much-deserved vote of confidence that Davidson College can help lead that work,” said Foxx, now on the Harvard University faculty and chair of the college’s Board of Trustees. “The Institute for Public Good will help people and organizations develop the skills to communicate with audiences from all backgrounds and perspectives and to peel apart an issue from different angles—to see that more than one thing can be true at the same time.” 

The network will build on Davidson’s nationally recognized Deliberative Citizenship Initiative, now a pillar within the Institute for Public Good. The initiative has, among other trailblazing steps, organized forums at Davidson to exchange views on divisive issues and hosted workshops on campus for faculty leaders from a variety of colleges for similar efforts on their campuses.

“We’d like everyone to come to the table for this incredibly important effort,” said Graham Bullock, founding director of the Deliberative Citizenship Initiative, who will lead the new network. “That includes students from backgrounds that historically have been excluded from participating in public life and students whose views are in the minority on college campuses. Our work is focused on helping all of us learn and apply the deliberative leadership skills needed in our world.” 

Davidson has partnered with the Associated Colleges of the South and the Institute for Citizens and Scholars to expeditiously build this network of colleges and universities. Davidson is a member of both organizations.

The funding comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education. Those grants are designed to support, in addition to civil discourse: responsible use of artificial intelligence, enhancing teaching and learning, reforms for higher education accreditation, high-quality and short-term programs. The exact total of Davidson’s award is $3,999,985 and is intended to cover 100 percent of the project costs. 

“This is the result of extraordinary teamwork,” Hicks said. “Graham Bullock has built Davidson’s Deliberative Citizenship Initiative from the ground up and seamlessly integrated it into the new Institute for Public Good, where Chris Marsicano, Stacey Riemer and the team have shown, with remarkable speed, how Davidson contributes to our community and beyond—in this case by building mutual understanding in a divided world.”