Engaging Diverse Viewpoints: What Is the Campus Climate for Perspective-Taking?

This report focuses on whether—and which—environments promote students' abilities to understand and be informed by perspectives that differ from their own. The report presents findings from a unique campus climate assessment tool—administered in 2007 to 24,000 students and 9,000 academic administrators, faculty, and student affairs professionals at twenty-three colleges and universities—that illuminate how these groups believe their campuses promote the importance of taking seriously the perspectives of others. This publication also addresses what aspects of the college experience promote engaging difference and appreciation for multiple perspectives. Ideal for on-campus and campus-community discussions about perspective-taking.