On Dialogue and the Work of Learning

Dear Students,

As Autumn Quarter begins, you have filled the Quads and campus with fresh energy and the determination, pride, and joy that you bring to your work here. 

I write today to reemphasize the central role of genuine dialogue among you in advancing your education here in how to think.

Here we argue hard and listen harder. 

This place is built and curated to serve the purpose of promoting dialogue. Your fellow students have come here from places rural and urban, from myriad walks of life and prior experience, from every state in America, from more than 100 different countries around the world. Your faculty and instructors are scholars who are among the most brilliant minds anywhere, and who devote themselves to uncovering truths and new depths of understanding. They are sincerely committed to elevating your skills in learning how to think. We all share one thing in common: proven excellence in learning and commitment to working toward deepening knowledge.  

In the world we live in today, societal polarization has deepened and the ability to have dialogue across differences is under immense stress. We counter this when we all work diligently to sustain a healthy culture of free expression.

Harmony is not the goal—the goal is truth-seeking, however fraught and hard. People may say things that you find deeply offensive. We will not punish them for expression that falls within the wide bounds of our carefully crafted policies of time, place, and manner, and anti-harassment and anti-discrimination. Rather, we have set the conditions to refute bad ideas. So, take the opportunity to contest them, take them apart, and help one another drive toward truth. To make that dialogue possible, we also hold a simple limit: you may disagree, protest, and challenge ideas, but you may not prevent others from learning, speaking, or being heard. Passion is welcome; preventing the conversation from happening is not. Enter disagreements with kindness and humility, and always be ready to hear another view. That is how understanding deepens.

This academic year will bring challenges worthy of your talents and opportunities equal to your ambitions. Talk to people who have lived very different lives from your own. Find ways to tear down walls of division and to build bridges of understanding. 

I am grateful to you all for being here. I look forward to witnessing all of the wonderful things you will achieve. 

All the best,

Paul

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Paul Alivisatos

President