University of St. Thomas President Rob Vischer recently joined Rebecca Bergman, president of Gustavus Adolphus College, and Suzanne Rivera, president of Macalester College, for a panel discussion on the role of higher education in Minnesota, hosted by MPR News.
From the discussion:
Host: “Are you saying that a student ... does not have an example of how to engage with disagreement and think through their own reaction ...?”
Vischer: “I’d put it a little bit differently. Too often, what they’re picking up from the surrounding culture is an understanding of political alignment as a precondition for relationship. Some of that might not be intentional. Some of it is we’ve even sorted ourselves geographically so you don’t have as much occasion for Democrats to be in everyday community with Republicans and vice versa. That tends to have a ripple effect just in how we see ourselves in terms of our social identities. It’s a separation. It’s much bigger than just our political views.”