Constructive
Disagreement
Campuses must invest in constructive disagreement by encouraging curiosity, humility, evidence-based reasoning, and charitable engagement across all aspects of campus life.
Constructive disagreement fosters intellectual humility and critical self-reflection, allowing us to discover where we might be mistaken and enabling a nuanced understanding of complex truths.
Academic institutions have a duty to cultivate constructive disagreement, incorporate structured disagreement into classrooms, research collaborations, and campus life — such as through co-teaching, public debates, and adversarial inquiry. These practices are especially important to the education of students, who deserve to be well prepared for the exchange of ideas on campus, in the workplace, and as part of a democracy.
Universities must educate students, faculty, and staff about the role of heterodox thinking in the expansion of human understanding — past, present, and future. Constructive disagreement is not consistent with shout-downs and intimidation, nor does it require polite silence or careless compromise. Instead, the practice of constructive disagreement shows respect through the rigorous examination of ideas and assumptions, including one’s own.
It’s impossible to grow as scholars and students without intellectually challenging ourselves and each other. By modeling curiosity and respect, we can collaborate to overcome our biases and transform our differences into a powerful engine for discovering new knowledge.
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