When Joan Gabel stepped into her role as Chancellor at the University of Pittsburgh in 2023, she walked onto a campus that had just weathered controversies around speech and protest.
So she championed a campus-wide effort to bring students together to tackle complex topics through dialogue, not debate, and use reliable information to do so. And Pitt measured their progress too, with help from C&S’s College Presidents for Civic Preparedness Campuswide Immersion program. A 2025 University survey found 7 in 10 students say they felt confident using evidence to support their arguments, and two-thirds report truly listening to people with both shared and opposing beliefs.
“Building bridges doesn’t mean you change your mind. It means you appreciate that people can be on both sides of the bridge, and that’s okay—in fact, it’s often a good thing.”
By 2029, C&S will bring together 20 million young people to step up as civic problem-solvers. Campus leaders like Chancellor Gabel are key to making that possible.
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