Commentary: College classrooms play a vital role in the health of democracy

According to a recent BBC article, first-time U.S. voters reported “feeling uneasy” prior to the presidential election, with one interviewee describing the election as “very overwhelming” and another saying “it feels like we can’t have as many civil conversations.” Colleges and university classrooms are a valuable place for practicing those civil conversations and learning about the issues impacting their community.

However, college and university enrollments have been steadily dropping due to a mix of ongoing impacts from COVID-19, difficulties with the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, fewer numbers of college-aged students (e.g., the projected “enrollment cliff”) and uncertainty about the return on investment of a college degree.

I’m concerned that fewer people are pursuing post-secondary degrees today than they did 10 years ago. This means fewer people are finding themselves in classrooms where they are prompted to talk across differences, exchange ideas and develop empathy in working toward shared goals of learning, growth and higher education.

Political polarization in the United States is deepening and that trend, unfortunately, seems on track to continue. In an AAUP survey, 80% of respondents ranked the political atmosphere surrounding colleges and universities as poor or very poor. The combination of lower enrollments and an increasingly poor political atmosphere in higher education has major implications for the health of our democracy.

I have been teaching public writing and researching civic engagement in higher education for the last 20 years. I assign students to research public issues, to write public letters, emails and op-eds, and to talk with classmates about their evidence-based stances on issues, even if their peers and instructor disagree. I ask students to respectfully engage with others on civic and political issues. I model and facilitate how to listen, learn and share — how to take space and make space. In my courses and others, I see college classrooms playing a vital role in promoting civil discourse, but only if there are students in the seats.

When universities and colleges are fulfilling the role of promoting a healthy democracy, instructors help young people and first-time voters of all ages analyze and discuss issues from different disciplinary perspectives. For my book “Learning on Location: Place-Based Approaches for Diverse Learners in Higher Education,” I interviewed college and university instructors in the United States and Canada about how they leverage engagement with local places such as legislative buildings, city halls and community parks to help students deepen their learning and to civically engage with their communities.

One sociology professor I interviewed told me how he assigns his students to observe eviction court hearings. We talked about the powerful impacts on student learning when they actually experience civic and political spaces. Students come to a different understanding of eviction statistics in Atlanta, for example, when they observe the prevalence of African American women in eviction courts. University courses are places to reflect and try to grapple with inequities in our society, not to advance specific political agendas but to invite engagement in civic and democratic processes.

Of course, there are some professors who try to avoid politics in the classroom altogether and there are others who may overshare their personal political thinking about an issue. However, as a teaching and learning center director at large, high-level research universities — previously in an urban center in the southeast and currently in a smaller city in the Pacific northwest — I find that teachers falling into the extremes of avoiding or pushing politics in the classroom are the exception, not the norm. I talk to college teachers and administrators daily about what’s happening in their classrooms, and they are aware of the hyper-polarization around politics and many are up for the challenge of facilitating those conversations among students.

As young people experience disillusionment with politics and the polarization of society, I hope trusted family members, friends and mentors will encourage them to enroll in college classes — not only to better themselves in their lives and careers but also to disrupt patterns of civic disengagement and to improve our democratic society. I hope students of all ages will see higher education as a valuable space for engaging with people who may have different views or values than your own.

And, if you find yourself in one of my classes, you’ll get to hear my spiel, which I whole-heartedly believe in: that education is a public good, that you are now an academic citizen, and that when the day comes to move the tassel on your graduation cap from right to left, I’ll ask you to remember all the rights, privileges and responsibilities that come with your degree, including being a good steward of our democracy.

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Holmes is associate vice provost for teaching and learning at Oregon State University and a public voices fellow with The OpEd Project.

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