Outlook Magazine - Fall 2018

PROGRAM INNOVATION

“Hearing the other side, whether you agree or disagree, is important for our growth.”

Tim Shiell, director of the Center for Study of Institutions and Innovation and professor in UW-Stout’s English and philosophy department

Free to speak your mind Center for Study of Institutions and Innovation encourages rational debate

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supported 12 research projects across the state on civil liberties and freedom. In his annual report Shiell noted widespread interest, especially with students, at UW-Stout and other campuses in the new UW System free speech policy with its penalties for disrupting free speech and mandatory training for new students. The center will work on making a free speech video and resource guide available at no cost to promote discussions and free speech training at UW campuses. This next year, Shiell also wants to work with more student groups to host civil liberties programs of interest to them. “We want to give them role models — that you can have two people with different views talk together and engage in a meaningful way,” Shiell said. “It is actually possible.”

n its first year, 18 Wisconsin universities and colleges partnered with UW-Stout’s Center for the Study of Institutions and Innovation to show the possibilities for civil and rational debate. The academic center started with a $425,000 grant from the Charles Koch Foundation, renewable up to three years for a total award of $1.7 million. The foundation supports research and educational programs focused on advancing an understanding of how free societies improve well-being. “We need to get back to talking about important things to engage each other and listen to each other on free speech, freedom of religion and freedom of the press,” said Tim Shiell, center director and a professor in UW-Stout’s English and philosophy department. “These impact so many different things including science, business activity and politics. It is not just scholarly. It impacts everything of importance.” Two major events this past year at UW-Stout included a Free Speech Week in October and a two-day Civil Liberties Symposium in April. “It is about a suppression of Americans’ ability to have civil and rational discourse or the decline to even enter into such conversations,” Shiell said. “Hearing the other side, whether you agree or disagree, is important for our growth. We’re not out to change people’s minds. It’s to do what universities are supposed to do — educate.” At other campuses that are part of the center’s network, more than 30 panels, workshops, reading groups, essay contests, speaking events and other events were held. The center also

Audience members ask questions and voice their opinions during a keynote presentation in Micheels Hall April 4 as part of the first Civil Liberties Symposium hosted by the UW-Stout Center for the Study of Institutions and Innovation.

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