The idea emerged in 2019 when professor Elizabeth Smith, then dean of the faculty of arts and sciences, heard colleagues worry that students increasingly seemed to shy away from difficult conversations in class. Students needed help, they said, to learn to navigate conflict without losing their tempers or, more often, falling silent. When the pandemic shut down conversations altogether, the idea languished until President Sian Beilock took office in 2023.
Now, the Dartmouth Dialogues initiative is on the leading edge of a movement in higher education. Launched in January 2024, the project sponsored more than 75 events this past academic year that ranged from a foreign policy debate between two former secretaries of state to workshops on how to manage difficult conversations. In May, the College announced a $25-million endowment for the project from the Frank family, one of the largest donations aimed at fostering civil conversation on a college campus.
“The endowment conveys that Dartmouth is committed to this, that our alums are committed to this, and our future students are going to be committed to having dialogue be a critical part of their Dartmouth educational experience,” says Kristi Clemens, executive director of the Dialogues.
Still, it’s a challenge to get public figures to agree to debate publicly, and organizations that partner with the project, especially the Dartmouth Political Union (DPU), have faced lots of rejection as they try to recruit speakers to Hanover. The DPU has staged five debates funded by the Dialogues initiative since last September, including one between Democratic former secretary of state John Kerry and Republican former secretary of state Mike Pompeo. What might have been the DPU’s marquee event for the year—a debate between conservative Charlie Kirk and left-leaning blogger Hasan Piker—was tragically derailed when Kirk was assassinated two weeks before the event.
The endowment conveys that Dartmouth is committed to this, that our alums are committed to this, and our future students are going to be committed to having dialogue be a critical part of their Dartmouth educational experience.” —Kristi Clemens
The assassination only underscored the need for civil dialogue, and student interest in Kirk’s visit to Dartmouth had been extraordinary. DPU president Malcolm “Mac” Mahoney ’26 said all 300 seats in the Hanover Inn ballroom were claimed within 10 minutes, with 300 more people on a waiting list. The most popular Dialogues-funded event was an appearance by former U.S. transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg in February as part of the Rockefeller Center’s “Law and Democracy” series. Nearly 700 people filled Spaulding Auditorium with another 1,200 online to hear Buttigieg, a potential Democratic presidential contender. Other top draws included a May debate about President Donald Trump between Mehdi Hasan of Zeteo and conservative podcaster Michael Knowles and a February appearance by Fox News host Laura Ingraham ’85. Both events were organized by the DPU.
“We want a big tent,” says Clemens. “If someone wants to call something a Dartmouth Dialogues event, we’re generally on board with that, but what we’re looking for is viewpoint diversity.” However, there are limits: The project seeks respectful debate, she says, not “wackos.”
Clemens is convinced that the skills training the Dialogues initiative offers could be even more important than flashy speakers. However, staff have struggled at times to persuade undergrads they need training in how to manage difficult conversations. A survey last fall found that a whopping 85 percent of students were confident they already have the skills to respectfully talk to people with whom they disagree. Not surprisingly, relatively few first-year students took a voluntary online training course offered by the Dialogues initiative last year.
“Our students feel confident in lots of things, and so do the adults in our lives, but I think if you look at the state of discourse in our world, a lot of things that people think are dialogue are not,” explains Clemens. “We’re moving so fast, we’re talking past each other. We’re shouting into the void.”
Undeterred, she says the project will offer a certificate for students who complete the online training, giving them something to list on their resumes.
DPU’s Mahoney believes the Dialogues have affected the kinds of people who come to the College. The student survey showed that members of the class of ’29 were significantly more likely than older students to say their goal in a disagreement is to understand the other side rather than win the argument.
“I think the Dialogues project has shaped the applicant pool,” says Mahoney. “We’re getting students who are very interested in talking to people who think differently than them.”
