Colleges and universities are flashpoints in America’s cultural divides. At a time when higher education is under enormous strain, from political polarization to financial instability, to the rise of AI, students and administrators alike are searching for ways to sustain dialogue and belonging across profound differences.

That’s the mission of the Constructive Dialogue Institute (CDI), founded by Jonathan Haidt and Caroline Mehl in 2017 to foster pluralism and civil discourse in higher education. With support from New Pluralists, CDI has rapidly scaled a set of evidence-based tools designed to shift entire campus cultures toward constructive dialogue.

From Classrooms to Campus-Wide Culture Change

In its early years, CDI’s free, self-serve model was embraced by individual professors struggling to keep classrooms open for difficult conversations. Within a few years, their resources had been used by professors in more than 600 academic institutions nationwide. But the team realized that to make a durable difference, the work needed to extend beyond individual classrooms to influence campus culture as a whole.

In 2023, CDI pivoted to a new strategy: forging campus-wide partnerships with administrators and university leaders. Skeptics warned that traction could take years. Instead, demand was immediate—growing from zero to 30 campuses in the first year.

When the events of October 7, 2023 intensified polarization on campuses interest in CDI’s approach exploded. In 2024, CDI grew fourfold, reaching about 120 partner campuses. A highlight was launching a multi-year, system-wide partnership with the City University of New York (CUNY) to bring constructive dialogue to all 26 campuses.

At CUNY, CDI helped establish a Constructive Dialogue Committee with leaders from across all campuses, trained them in asset mapping to identify influencers, and piloted their Perspectives program system-wide. By the summer, every campus president and senior leadership team had completed CDI’s two-day Leadership Institute, gaining skills to lead in moments of division.

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Caption iconPhoto credit: Constructive Dialogue Institute

A Holistic Approach to Culture Change

CDI’s model now works across every layer of campus life. At the top, their Leadership Institute brings together college presidents and senior teams to align on a vision and strategy for culture change. At the foundation, CDI equips students, faculty, and staff with practical tools for engaging across differences. By embedding these practices at every level, CDI helps transform entire institutions into environments where pluralism can thrive.

After completing CDI’s Perspectives online learning program, 81% of students report feeling more confident communicating across differences. Among educators, 89% say they feel better prepared to lead dialogue. These numbers represent more than statistics; they reflect classrooms and campuses where previously fraught conversations are becoming spaces for trust and learning.

The Right Idea at the Right Time

Amid a rapidly shifting higher education landscape, the phrase “constructive dialogue” has become more than CDI’s mission. It’s now the buzzword of the field. Leaders at Harvard, Stanford, and Dartmouth, among others, use the term to frame their campus climate efforts, and dozens of former college presidents have called for it as a national priority.

For CDI, this shift signals not just a trend, but a cultural turning point: the recognition that campuses cannot afford to let polarization dictate the future. By building resilient institutions rooted in dialogue, CDI is equipping higher education to withstand crisis and modeling how pluralism can endure under pressure.

"We developed a holistic suite of tools geared towards college presidents, incoming students, and everyone in between, to give them the resources and skills they needed to collectively create culture change."
– Caroline Mehl, Co-Founder and Executive Director, Constructive Dialogue Institute