A month after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, before a small gathering formed on the quad in support of Palestine and encampments spread across other campuses, students at the College of the Holy Cross came together in the campus center for a conversation.
The topic was tense and would only grow to be more contentious, but the premise was simple: to talk about the war in Gaza in an open conversation among community members.
In an age of a rampant digitized democracy — where artificial intelligence can distort fact from fiction and social media provides a platform to brawl behind screens — Holy Cross has gone back to basics. Now in their fourth year, themed “Dialogue Dinners” invite students to engage in constructive discourse, led by a student facilitator, that begins with an acknowledgement that the conversation should start from a point of curiosity, not critique.
Days after Charlie Kirk was assassinated, students gathered to talk about political violence. They have debated artificial intelligence and dissected cancel culture. When Dr. Anthony Fauci, a Holy Cross alum, came to campus last year, he wanted to participate, too, talking with students about public health.
“It has become such an enduring way for us to engage,” said Daniel Klinghard, the dean of education and academic experience. “Institutionally, this is how we do it in response to big events that happen. This is a way that we can work through this.”
Holy Cross was not included in the most recent rankings of college campuses from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. But the report found that among 63,000 students at 262 four-year colleges nationwide, nearly half said they would feel uncomfortable expressing their opinion on a controversial topic in a campus space — like a dinning hall or quad – and more than half would refrain from doing so in the classroom.
The old adage is to not talk about politics at the dinner table, but at Holy Cross, students are challenged to do just that.
Klinghard was part of a team that introduced the idea in 2023, after hosting a conference on free expression, where peer institutions, like Marquette University, shared that they hosted facilitated conversation on their campuses.
Holy Cross scheduled its first one for that fall, and community members were asked to respond to a poll to pick the topic. Quickly, it became a litmus test as the war in Gaza emerged as the top choice.
“This was the thing that was the most hot topic on campus, and a lot of people said, ‘We should go in a different direction. It’s the first time. Let’s be cautious,’” said Klinghard. “We decided, no, this is what the students want to talk about”
Julia Kane, a senior, was less than two months into her first year of college. A “standstill on campus” followed Oct. 7, 2023, she said, and she remembers thinking: “What are we supposed to do with this going on right now?”
So she attended the Dialogue Dinner, a conversation about the conflict over a catered Thanksgiving dinner in November.
“I wanted to talk to more people about it,” she said. “And I loved it because my table had very different views.”
Afterward, Kane, who studies political science, applied to be a facilitator for future dinners. For the last three years, she has met weekly with a dozen other students and helped guide the conversations, in addition to moderating events with student groups, including a conversation between the Holy Cross Feminist Forum and Students for Life club.
At Holy Cross, the basic premise is bolstered by the school’s Jesuit foundation. On each table is a set of framed guidelines, a framework based on the presupposition of Saint Ignatius of Loyola: “Every good Christian ought to be more eager to put a good interpretation on a neighbor’s statement than to condemn it.”
“We may disagree with one another, but we can do so with humility, respect, and a willingness to listen,” said Caitlin MacNeil, a Holy Cross alum who is now the associate director for student involvement.
On a Wednesday night in September, a month into the school year, MacNeil reiterated this intention as students filed into the campus center and took a seat at small circular tables. The theme for the evening was the promises and responsibilities of democracy, in light of Constitution Week and the country’s semiquincentennial.
Kane facilitated a table where a senior from Pennsylvania took a seat — the dinner was one of many bucket-list items for her final year in Worcester. A first-year student from Ohio joined, after attending a similar exercise during orientation. Another first-year student sat down, having never been to such an event, just beginning his time at the college hoping to study biology with a minor in theater.
Before students began their own conversations, three seniors simulated the experience for the crowd. Each had just participated in the college’s semester program in Washington D.C., and Sydney Carr, a political science professor, asked them to publicly reflect on their experience and personal principles about the importance of democracy.
In Washington, Molly Gage, a senior, said she saw how a six-hour hearing became a 30 second TikTok, clipped to create a rancor when the rest was far more cordial. Maxine Jones, another senior, said she heard how most young people felt shunned from civic spaces, like town hall meetings.
These sentiments laid a foundation for the conversation at Kane’s table, where students took turns answering a similar set of questions about political participation and perceptions of democracy.
Jimmy Monahan, a first-year student, said aside from voting, he sees most of his peers choosing to engage in politics through protesting. Cecilia Massaua, a senior from Pennsylvania, said she did not disagree but felt defeated from her own experiences.
“No one ever listens to us. I would love to protest, but I feel like everyone just looks down on it,” she said. “We go out to the streets, I remember with ‘No Kings Day,’ and it discourages me because nothing happened.”
Instead, she felt she learned how to express her own views, which she identified to be moderately conservative, by simply talking to her peers. At Holy Cross, she has leaned into the discomfort of debate.
“It is such a formative time to be wrong and be right,” she said. “You get the opportunity to make so many mistakes, but then learn from them but also be right and engage in really cool conversations.”
Nina Head, a first-year student from Ohio, said that part of the reason she chose to attend Holy Cross was because of the community the college fostered. Outside of campus, the thought of talking publicly about politics feels intimidating as a young person.
Over dinner with her classmates, she was the first to speak up.
“This teaches a really everyday way to have a civil conversation,” Head said. “Find out if you are wrong, be wrong, just talk it out, learn from other people and expand your perspective.”
Michaela Towfighi can be reached at michaela.towfighi@globe.com. Follow her on X @michaelatowfghi.