Democracy skills for the community
There’s a lot of talk lately about the need for colleges to play a role in supporting a healthy democracy, so this week I’m bringing you advice from a leader who has done this work not only on his campus but in the local community.
In 2021 the small town of Newberg, Ore., was ripped apart by a local school-board controversy over the display of political symbols. Not just parents, but everyone in town took sides, including at the Rotary Club, where Robin Baker, president of George Fox University, is a member.
Stunned by the hostility, Baker, who has led the small Christian college since 2007, saw the rift as an opportunity for his institution to model civil discourse, and it created what people there termed the Civility Project, a series of community dialogues and local political-candidate forums over the course of a year.
The effort succeeded in healing some of the bitterness and bringing people together in a respectful way. This year, George Fox is running the program on campus, to educate students in the run-up to the presidential election.
In these divided times, Baker believes, it’s no longer an option for colleges to stay distant from their towns, or to disengage from politics. But rather than take sides, he said, institutions can use their expertise in education to help their communities develop some of the civics skills that seem to have been lost.
“Universities used to think of themselves as enclaves apart and elite from the community as a whole,” he said. “It’s really vital now that they are part of their community that surrounds them, impacting the conversation in ways that are positive.”
Central to the effort was helping local residents develop — and agree to — what they called the Civility Pledge, a statement of how people promised to talk with one another. It sounds like “kindergarten rules,” Baker said, but it was necessary at the time.
Here are four lessons from Baker, along with the text of the pledge, in case you want to adapt it or create your own:
It helps if the community already trusts you. Staff members’ deep relationships in town drew the initial participants to get the events off the ground, he said. People leveraged friendships, saying “Hey, you need to be there.” But trust was still delicate. Baker employed a former professor who is a trained mediator to lead the conversions, which were purposely held off campus at first.
A community project doesn’t happen overnight. The effort took the better part of a year, he said, and momentum built slowly. Early gatherings were designed to help people think about why they should come together and listen to one another at all, and how a pledge could help. Attendance was low at first but grew over time, and the final phase was a series of forums — a chance for residents to hear from school-board candidates about their platforms, and for the dialogue to model civility. It showed real success, Baker said: In the election, both parties agreed to the pledge, and discussions were better than before.
Focus on freedom of thought. Discussions of free speech often lead to conflict, but it’s possible to reframe them around helping people understand a perspective they disagree with, Baker said. The goal of the project was to help people not just emphasize their positions, but learn others’, and in doing so, to create a practice of listening and a common sense of advocating for the community.
Without sustained attention, civics skills atrophy. Those skills can no longer be taken for granted — they have to be constantly redeveloped over time, among both students and community members, he said. “Some of us assumed that they were just normal to a democracy, that this is the way you behave, and I think most of us have learned that that’s just not true.”
The Newberg Area Civility Pledge
I will be kind and respectful to everyone.
I will listen deeply to understand the views and values of people with whom I disagree.
I will work to solve problems by seeking common ground.
I will refrain from mocking, ridiculing, or demonizing those who disagree with me.
I will seek to trust, and be trustworthy and truthful, in my interactions with others.