Hughes Center Civility Discussions

Inspired by the Initiative to Revive Civility, a 2016 program of the National Institute for Civil Discourse, the Hughes Center will hold small-group student discussions about civility in our political conversations during the 2020 election year. As part of the Initiative to Revive Civility, the William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy at Stockton University partnered with the National Institute for Civil Discourse (NICD) to promote civility, hold community conversations and work with government and news media to spread the word. NCID programs, including Golden Rule 2020, provide tools for Americans to take solution-oriented actions that will help restore civility in our country's political conversation.

Former New Jersey Governor Christie Whitman, who received a Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award at the Hughes Center Honors 2019, is an honorary national co-chair of the NICD, whose advisory board is chaired by former President Bill Clinton and includes former U.S. Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright and Colin Powell, former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, and other bipartisan political leaders.

The Hughes Center became a Revive Civility partner in early November 2019, and since then has been holding small-group community discussions about civility in our political conversations. This is a topic that was very important to the center’s namesake, the late Bill Hughes, and to the mission of civil civic engagement that guides the William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy. Stockton University students, faculty, and staff, as well as members of the public are invited to participate in dialogue about how to reduce the hostility and polarization found in political talk today.

 

What to expect:

•          Meet via Zoom for up to 60 - 90 minutes

•          It is not a policy discussion, a debate or an airing of partisan views

•          We will talk about incivility in politics and government. We will share the participants' feelings about incivility, as well as their experiences with it, and the potential impacts on our political life and on our own behaviors.

•          There are no right or wrong answers.

•          The conversation will be moderated by the Hughes Center Executive Director Dr. John Froonjian, and observed by a Hughes Center staffer. It will be recorded for research purposes and internal Hughes Center use only.

•          No participants will be publicly identified or quoted. We ask that participants treat the conversation as confidential and not publicly disseminate its content.

 

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