Campuses help with 'difficult dialogues'

Mallory Taul, center, teaches a mock class Friday with students Paula Carter, left, and Zackary Ruesler, right, during a "difficult dialogues" summer workshop for campus leaders from nine schools hosted by the University of Missouri in Columbia, Mo. (L.G. PATTERSON ~ Associated Press) [Click to enlarge]

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- The University of Missouri is helping lead a national effort to promote civil conversations on college campuses where heated debates can sometimes turn ugly.

A rash of politically charged confrontations in recent years led to the $4 million Ford Foundation initiative. It began in 2006 and was expanded this year at a dozen campuses nationwide.

Missouri recently hosted a "difficult dialogues" summer workshop for campus leaders from eight other Big 12 Conference schools as well as Alaska-Anchorage.

Participants spent four days sharing war stories about volatile classroom encounters. They swapped tips on how to promote academic freedom and ways to tolerate offensive speech without allowing hate speech.