Provost Alec Gallimore announced a new Provost’s Initiative on Free Inquiry, Pluralism and Belonging, marking the second major initiative launched by the Office of the Provost this year aiming to promote constructive dialogue on campus.
The new initiative, introduced in a Thursday afternoon email to the University community, will represent a “campus-wide effort to support open deliberation in the classroom and across our campus.” According to Gallimore, it will support research on “polarization and bridge-building,” bring in scholars with “different perspectives,” offer new courses on civil discourse and provide “skill-building” opportunities.
“We must widen our efforts to engage challenging societal issues from multiple and divergent perspectives and nurture the habits and skills needed for difficult conversations,” he wrote.
He pointed to the 2024 Provost’s Forum — which centered around the ongoing conflict in the Middle East — and a fireside chat with U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., as examples of events that fostered “a respectful spirit of dialogue and understanding.”
The initiative seeks to complement projects at other “departments, schools, centers and institutes” and build upon the Provost’s Initiative on the Middle East, which was first announced in February.
“Dialogue is critical to our goal of building an inclusive community where everyone can thrive, and the conflict in the Middle East is not the only issue on which we hold diverse points of view and where marginalization of voices, exclusion of minority opinions and self-censorship pose impediments to that goal,” Gallimore wrote.
He noted that the new initiative will also focus on the “health of democracies” and the role of universities in “fostering democratic values in a pluralistic society.” He also shared plans for a Bass Fellows workshop for faculty on “teaching after the election.”
The University will soon seek “input and participation” from members of the Duke community on the initiative’s development.
Gallimore also referenced the recently formed faculty committee on “the state of academic freedom and responsibility, free expression and engagement at Duke,” which was first established in April.
The committee plans to update the University’s policy on academic freedom — which has remained unchanged since 1976 — and promises to submit a report in spring 2025 to the Academic Council, Gallimore and President Vincent Price.
“Academic freedom is fundamental to a university’s core missions of research, teaching and service, and this moment presents an opportunity to reflect on and examine Duke’s commitment to academic freedom and related issues of free expression and engagement,” Gallimore wrote.
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Michael Austin is a Trinity junior and managing editor of The Chronicle's 120th volume.