Campuses across the country are dealing with rippling tensions from the Middle East conflict. There are a variety of ways that people are responding to these challenging times. This CoP series will invite guests to talk about specific localized campus examples and maintain a conflict management lens throughout the conversations. Each session in the series will have guests and consider a different angle on the issues that come up in looking at different campuses and their respective larger community. 
 
Some examples of the questions we aim to explore are: What is the role of administrators, faculty, staff, and students on campus to respond to these issues? What are the messages being conveyed to campus and the larger community and how does it reflect bridge building efforts or not? What is the threshold for determining appropriate actions to support free speech while ensuring safety?  What can be done to approach the next upcoming academic year in a constructive, proactive manner to support higher education spaces to be the best they can be? How can the identified bridge building skills that can support these controversial conversations also support differing perspectives about the upcoming election?

Facilitator:
Lisa-Marie Napoli, Ph.D., Director of the Political and Civic Engagement Program (PACE), Director of Voice for Democracy and Constructive Conversation, Founding Chair of IUB’s Big Tem Voting Challenge (BTVC), Indiana University Bloomington