U of T creates new role to foster civil discourse on campus

The University of Toronto has created a new adviser role to help people across campus engage in healthy, civil discourse. Over the next eighteen months, U of T Provostial Adviser on Civil Discourse Randy Boyagoda will assemble a working group, engage with stakeholders, and develop a plan for programming and events, all with the end goal of cultivating “a disposition for civil discourse” at the university. Boyagoda explained to Toronto Life that part of the impetus for the role was to address the anxieties that faculty and students have experienced over sharing their position on complex or controversial issues. In an editorial for the Globe and Mail, U of T Professor Mark Kingwell further emphasized the importance of Boyagoda’s role in fostering civil discourse, which he described as “the life-blood of democratic citizenship.”

Toronto Life | Toronto Star | Globe and Mail