New UVA Program Pairs Politically Diverse Students for Lunch Dates
“to attempt to reach a common ground”
This actually sounds like a good idea. When people get to know each other, they’re more likely to be respectful despite differences.
The Daily Caller reports:
UVA Initiative Pairs Politically Diverse Students For Lunch Dates
Students will pair students of different political persuasions for lunch or coffee dates for a University of Virginia student initiative announced Friday.
Converge UVA will match interested students with diverging political views and use guiding questions to attempt to reach a common ground, according to The Cavalier Daily.
“Our Facebook feeds are algorithmically designed to reinforce our own views,” said Jack Wilkins, the UVA student who leads the program’s development, to The Cavalier Daily. “Oftentimes, our friends hold similar views as us so there’s not many avenues to expand beyond that — to challenge your own beliefs.”
Converge UVA’s conversation guider suggests that participants view the interaction as a dialogue instead of a debate and assume that their partner is speaking in good faith.
“It’s a good idea,” said Adam Kimelman, president of the school’s College Republicans. “I’ve done similar things with some of my friends…and it’s definitely a therapeutic way of going about [political conversation].”
“Political party does not define who we are as human beings — our government and our citizens must always work in the pursuit of uplifting one another,” said Brett Curtis, president of UVA’s University Democrats. “Having a conversation, connecting with others over a meal is a great way to start.”
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Comments
I predict this will be an abysmal failure, when hard leftist students refuse to participate.
Getting the leftist students to participate will not be the problem, IMO. Getting the leftist students to participate after they’re told that everyone attending the “lunch date” has to pay for their own lunch will be the problem.
I find this encouraging. It seems UVA is 1) admitting that there are other, legitimate viewpoints and 2) intending to expose themselves to those viewpoints.
With luck, they will eventually realize 3) maybe they should start hiring professors with these alternate viewpoints.