Expression Exchange: Fall Events Explore Free Expression and Civil Discourse
The University’s calendar is packed full of opportunities for students, faculty and staff to engage in respectful and meaningful dialogue in classrooms and across campus.
This story is a part of our Expression Exchange series, highlighting DU's commitment to freedom of expression on college campuses.
As discussions around freedom of expression on college campuses around the country intensify, the University of Denver is taking the lead in promoting intellectual freedom and thought pluralism with a slate of initiatives and programming throughout the fall and winter quarters.
Furthering the University’s mission to pursue truth and knowledge while emphasizing respect, curiosity, strength of character and intellectual humility, faculty are integrating civil discourse and free expression in their classrooms and in campus-wide events for the DU community.
Ongoing programs including the Denver Democracy Summit, which kicks off with a webinar series this fall, and non-competitive, audience participation debates, which foster respectful conversations across ideological lines, offer the DU community opportunities to explore the role of free expression in academia, as well as encourage reflection, a critical component of the DU 4D Experience. The Debate Across the Curriculum initiative, led by communication studies professor Darrin Hicks, is integrating respectful, non-competitive debate into syllabuses across campus. And during Discoveries Orientation, approximately 500 first-year students took part in a debate over on-campus protest, kickstarting their academic journey and setting a standard for navigating free expression as a campus community.
Over the summer and throughout the fall, the University continues to lead the national conversation on the role of freedom of expression at academic institutions.
Free Expression in the Classroom
In August, DU piloted faculty training workshops, which equipped faculty with the tools to engage students in meaningful discussions across academic disciplines—resulting in six first-year seminars focused on freedom of expression and pluralism.
DU’s Freedom of Expression Committee also launched a competitive grant program, offering up to $15,000 in funding for faculty, students and staff to develop freedom of expression and pluralism focused curriculum and research projects.
Pluralism Across Campus
The first of several campus-wide events planned for this fall was the Sept. 6 webinar, “Global Election Year Retrospective,” part of the Denver Democracy Summit hosted by the Joseph Korbel School of International Studies, in which participants explored the state of global democracy. The Scrivner Institute of Public Policy also hosts the Denver Dialogues series and other events, which foster discussions on pressing public policy issues around the globe.
On Sept. 10, students, faculty and staff engaged in non-partisan conversations at the presidential debate watch party. And the Sept. 17 Constitution Day event featured Chancellor Jeremy Haefner, Provost Mary Clark and faculty members reading excerpts from banned books and a keynote lecture by Sturm College of Law professor Alan Chen on the role of free expression in higher education.
Civil Discourse in Election Season
In the lead up to election day, the Center for Community Engagement to Advance Scholarship and Learning and the Center on American Politics are connecting the campus community with voting information and resources and helping them register, as part of the non-partisan DU Votes initiative.
October’s highlight is a lecture on "21st Century Elections: Technology, Disinformation/Misinformation and AI," which will investigate how new technologies are impacting democratic and electoral processes. November will see post-election analysis with the second webinar in the Denver Democracy Summit series, “U.S. Election Aftermath: What Just Happened and Where Do We Go From Here?”
Later in the month, 9NEWS anchor Kyle Clark will visit campus, where he and Chancellor Jeremy Haefner will discuss the possibility of productive conversations in an age of conflicting versions of reality, and the media and universities’ roles shaping that reality.
Over winter break, faculty that teach advanced seminars (ASEM) will go through free expression-focused workshops, and ASEM instructors will develop coursework and lectures devoted to freedom of expression and pluralism to integrate into their seminars.
Keeping the Conversation Going in the New Year
In January 2025, DU will host the third annual Spark event, a full day of programming dedicated to free expression and pluralism, including expert panels and presentations moderated by Derigan Silver, chair of the Department of Media, Film and Journalism Studies and faculty director for civil discourse and free expression. At last year’s Spark, participants learned about the intersection of social justice and civil discourse and debated the purview of codes of conduct over social media. And Jan. 23 and 24, the Denver Democracy Summit will return to campus and continue the discourse on global democracy.
The University’s new Citizens and Scholars Steering Committee and Interfaith America Steering Committee will work with the Institute for Citizens and Scholars and Interfaith America to develop plans to continue embracing freedom of expression. Additional plans include expanding Debate Across the Curriculum, additional non-competitive debates and more all-campus lectures and workshops for students, faculty and staff.
