There’s a residential hall on Concordia’s campus where discussions about hot-button topics are not just welcomed but expected - as long as they’re conducted with respect.
That place is Polis Plaza, a living learning community conceived and guided by professor Bryan Santin. Now in its third year, the issues-focused dorm is educating students not just about controversial topics, but about how to talk about them.
“Polis Plaza is the public square of the University, that is how we look at it,” Sabin says. “We discuss issues in society, politics, and pop culture that students are interested in, but which don’t fit easily into a class.”
More than fifty students live in Polis – “polis” is the Ancient Greek word for city-state - and most share a curiosity about current issues and the various perspectives on them. They also want to learn how to have discussions about potentially divisive subjects without things becoming too heated.
“We are giving them a language and model of discussion that is more nuanced and sophisticated than people screaming at each other online,” says Santin, who double majored in political science and English literature as an undergraduate, then earned a PhD at Notre Dame in English in 2017.
Polis hosts several faculty-led discussions each semester including one on, “Was it right to drop nuclear bombs on Japan?” Taking its cue from the 2023 movie “Oppenheimer,” and another about the host of cultural questions brought to light by the Barbie movie. Topics are crowdsourced by polling students, and panels of faculty members present arguments for and against different trends and ideas, then offer analysis and perspective.
“We try and keep it educational,” Santin says. “We say we are not going to solve anything today. We are interested in coming to understand this particular issue from all possible sides. That lowers the temperature. We want to have a friendly conversation to understand controversial things.” It doesn’t hurt that the evenings start with free pizza or tacos.
Ceiveon Watkins, a junior who is studying to become a Lutheran pastor, chose to live in Polis Plaza and serve as its resident advisor because of its lively dialogues… and its food. “I spent a lot of time going to their Taco Talks when I was a sophomore,” he says. “Being a pre-seminary student with a love for psychology, I knew a living learning community centered around culture and people was where I wanted to be.”
Watkins says he was finding little valuable discussion on social media, because after people posted something, “there was never much engagement past the at post or that tweet.” But at Polis, “I want to help bring to the forefront conversations and questions people want to talk about but don’t get a chance to and bring them to a forum where we can analyze and break them down,” he says.
He appreciates that instead of free-for-all arguments, Polis’ talks are “instructional and in a well-framed format.”
”Having this space to engage in honest, open, civil engagement is so important for our society to grow,” he believes.
One event concerned the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision on overruling Roe v. Wade, and discussion Santin says was “fantastic” and which included a review of the legal and cultural history of abortion in the U.S., plus the specifics of Roe and excepted from the Dobbs opinion.
Students bring great questions to ask, says Santin, who lives at Polis with his wife and young child. Conversations about key issues also happen spontaneously between students and himself while they are walking around the residence halls or doing laundry in the common laundry room.
A recent Polis event examined the growing political gender gap among men and women under the age 30. Another may dive into the ideas and appeal of author and psychologist Jordan Peterson, who has a new book coming out in November and whose thoughts have captured the attention of many sturdiness. Santin believes the events are teaching students how to live better in a pluralistic society.
“With the broader political conversation in the country running so hot, we’re doing the best we can” to train students in civil dialogue, he says.