A few years ago, Dr. Jennifer Keohane was closing another semester of her favorite course at The 极乐禁地 when she realized it developed a major flaw.
That pivotal moment would become the impetus for not only an overhaul to the associate professor鈥檚 debate course, but also for more conversations across the campus about civil discourse and its ever-increasing value.
It started in 2020 when the pandemic forced Keohane to move her Argumentation, Debate and Society course online.
The course offers a perfect combination of life and work skills鈥攃ommunication, critical thinking, public speaking and empathy, to name a few. Keohane paired students, gave them debate topics and let them debate in front of the rest of the class. The class would then vote on the winner.
The assignment would have yielded the results Keohane wanted but the format had an unfortunate side effect: The course ended on a divisive note and missed the greater points. Not being in the same room only magnified the negative results.
鈥淚 think what debate does is actually bring us together in an experience of critical thinking,鈥� said Keohane, who is also director of the B.A. in Digital Communication program. 鈥淪o, I was trying to think about how to redesign the class, and this is also, of course, happening in the wake of the 2020 election where civil discourse did not prevail. Even since 2016, political discourse has felt really rancorous. I had some soul-searching moments like, what does a debate class look like post-2016 in a world where I want to teach students to be critical thinkers, not to just belittle and demean and yell at their opponents, which is what they see on TV.鈥�
Keohane found her answer when she found an organization called the . The group has a debate format that would improve her class model.
The truth of the matter is most of us spend most of our time talking to people who already agree with us, whether it's on social media, whether it's with our friends, and what these debates do is they give students the chance to hear people who disagree with them.
Mirroring a congress, students take turns speaking their side. They give a speech of affirmation and open the floor for questions. Then there鈥檚 a speech of negation and the floor again opens for questions. A moderator helps keep questions and conversation civil but doesn鈥檛 judge.
鈥淎t the end of the debate, you don't declare a winner, it's just people who have had this experience,鈥� Keohane said.
She signed up for a chance to bring a moderator from the organization to her class. The moderator that came was impressed with the UBalt student鈥檚 discussions because of the way they wove personal experience into their positions.
Afterward, he offered Keohane a chance to be a faculty fellow on a $1.3 million grant to study the impact of debate on college campuses.
鈥淲orking with them, people who live in the nonprofit civil discourse space, really showed me what this could be for students, and the power of standing up and speaking your mind,鈥� Keohane said.
The format change brought an added benefit to her course at a time when it was increasingly relevant.
鈥淭he truth of the matter is most of us spend most of our time talking to people who already agree with us, whether it's on social media, whether it's with our friends, and what these debates do is they give students the chance to hear people who disagree with them,鈥� she said.
Keohane deeply believes in the value of the debate opportunity that she鈥檚 expanded the model from her classroom. She鈥檚 partnered UBalt Votes, based within the Rosenberg Center for Student Engagement and Inclusion; the Hoffberger Center for Ethical Engagement; and other University offices and groups to host debate events that welcome anyone in the campus community. Topics have included: Should the U.S. abolish the electoral college, should colleges and universities end affirmative action efforts, and should professors ban students from using artificial intelligence on coursework?
Nicholas Charalambous, a B.A. in Psychology student who is also one of the student leaders behind UBalt鈥檚 College Debate and Discourse Alliance group, appreciates the wider debates. When grades aren鈥檛 involved, he noted, students might feel more liberated to speak their minds.
鈥淧eople are given the opportunity to engage in discourse in a way where they get to flesh out their own ideas and listen to other鈥檚 views uninterrupted,鈥� he said. 鈥淭here are no insults, personal attacks, winners or losers, just two hours of individuals exchanging opposing ideas in a format designed to welcome a fresh perspective.鈥�
Charalambous feels like he鈥檚 learned a lot from this debate format, but one lesson stands out.
鈥淪ometimes if you want to truly understand the other side's position, you need to just sit down and listen and give people the opportunity to say what they want to say, without pressuring them and without interrupting them,鈥� he said. 鈥淵ou'll be shocked to learn not only how much you may not have considered about the opposite side's position and how necessary that is in properly developing your own views.鈥�
Charalambous knows he isn鈥檛 alone in that takeaway and loves that others have been able to hear others鈥� perspectives through the debates.
That isn鈥檛 College Debate and Discourse Alliance鈥檚 main goal, though.
鈥淥ur primary goal is reducing political tension and polarization on campus, reminding people that respectful disagreement is not only possible, but vital in a society with such a diverse range of perspectives and lived experiences,鈥� Charalambous said. 鈥淚t isn't so much about 鈥榮eeing both sides鈥� of an issue as it is about humanizing them.鈥�
During the electoral college debate, for example, he said the conversation shifted to winner takes all versus proportionate representation. He personally sided with the latter, but then another student shared a personal experience where Charalambous鈥� preferred method in their country gave rise to a dictator.
鈥淗is anecdote didn't change my mind, and I wasn't convinced, but his negative experiences allowed me to empathize with his hesitation towards my own position,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 think these kinds of interactions are important because they remind people that not everyone has hidden intentions, even though you can never really be sure what those are. At the end of the day, most people hold their beliefs because they truly believe that what they are advocating is right, and going into discussions with this good faith assumption will allow you to engage with others in a way that you can more constructively navigate and manage your own negative perceptions and be more open to new perspectives.鈥�
For Keohane, the goal is helping students gain some confidence to speak up in front of others, not just in a classroom or controlled environment, but wherever they go after they鈥檙e finished at UBalt.
鈥淚f I can help them feel more confident sharing their opinions when they know there are people in the room who disagree with them, I consider that a win,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 do know, and I always tell them, you're getting the message that this doesn't matter, but I still think it does.
鈥淚 don't know that we'll ever go back to a world where it's not all about the clickbait and the 15-second soundbite but being able to use evidence to back up your points matters, even if it's only because you know you've made the strongest argument that you can. Those are the kind of skills that I hope to impart.鈥�