New York Tech Awarded $2.5 Million to Advance Civil Discourse on Campuses

New York Institute of Technology is among a select number of organizations across the country to receive the U.S. Department of Education Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) Special Projects Program Grant. This new four-year grant exceeds $2.5 million and will support efforts to drive student success by building civil discourse across the university’s campuses.

This award represents the third U.S. Department of Education grant the university has secured in the last three years and furthers successful practices established under the previous two federal grants. The newest awarded project is titled “Tech Talks: Promoting Civil Discourse at New York Tech.” Vice President for Strategic Initiatives and Accreditation Francesca Fiore, Ed.D., is the project lead. Vice President for Equity Access and Community Engagement and Chief Medical Officer Brian Harper, M.D., M.P.H., and Interim Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Francine Glazer, Ph.D., are co-leaders.

“Tech Talks builds on strategies supported by New York Tech over the last few years to encourage civil discourse, improve campus climate, and prepare our students to embrace dialogue, understanding, and freedom of speech,” Fiore says.

Of note, Tech Talks leverages and extends initiatives designed to ensure a campus climate that supports constructive, honest, and respectful dialogue. It augments activities funded by the university’s U.S. Department of Education Title III Strengthening Institutions Program award focused on enhancing undergraduate student retention and enhancing graduation rates, and its Postsecondary Student Success Grant, which offers specialized support and programming, including holistic coaching, tutoring, and community-building through faculty initiatives and peer and near-peer mentoring. “FIPSE grants are highly competitive. The programs supported by this new grant will enhance the good work we have been doing to strengthen communication across differences and make our university community even stronger,” Glazer shares.

“This grant award will allow us to promote communication using the pillars of mutual respect, attentive listening, and empathy. This is a great opportunity for the New York Tech community to learn techniques to find common ground and achieve constructive solutions despite having different personal perspectives,” adds Harper.

Navigating Disagreement

Specifically, Tech Talks will address political polarization and partisan divides on university campuses. Results from the most recent (2023) National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) reveal the presence of these divisions, even at institutions with a strong, positive campus climate like New York Tech, according to Fiore. While 75 percent of first-year students and seniors report engaging with peers of different backgrounds, fewer (63 percent for first-year students and 66 percent for seniors) report engaging with peers of different political views.

“Through this partnership, the Constructive Dialogue Institute will work closely with New York Institute of Technology to deliver a series of workshops and programs that help bring the Tech Talks vision to life,” says Ciaran O’Connor, head of strategic communications at the Constructive Dialogue Institute. “Together, we’ll equip faculty, staff, and students with practical tools for navigating disagreement, fostering inquiry, and sustaining civil discourse across campus—turning dialogue from an aspiration into a lived, everyday practice.”

The Tech Talk program will also include:

• Activities coupled with faculty support elements to prepare students to engage constructively across differences in values, perspectives, and lived experiences. This includes eight new Pathway minors and experiential learning opportunities, faculty communities of practice, and a culminating faculty event;

• Peer and near-peer student engagement to reinforce classroom learning of civil dialogue, including the expansion of the university’s Responsible Tech Ambassadors program; and
• Badges and micro-credentials to encourage participation and scale this work to high school and community college students, as well as community partners.

Performance measures include student enrollment in the new minors and micro-credentials; numbers of students, faculty, and staff receiving certifications through the Constructive Dialogue Institute and/or participating in workshops or training; and the 2026 and 2029 NSSE scores. To officially launch Tech Talks, the project leads are convening a team to begin year-one work, hiring a project director, and forming an advisory group, among other efforts.

FIPSE is a discretionary grant initiative that supports innovative projects to address critical national needs in postsecondary education. The funds awarded under this specific program competition empower institutions to develop and scale solutions that improve educational outcomes, strengthen institutional capacity, and align education with workforce demands. For competitive funding consideration, the Department of Education released four priorities to support areas of national need, one of which is protecting and promoting civil discourse on college and university campuses to support learning opportunities that include a range of viewpoints and encourage dialogue.