From Divisiveness to Discourse: Bridging Rival Realities in Public Higher Education - Phase II

Investigators: Worthington, Roger, MU Chancellor's Diversity Initiative/COE-ESCP; Burgoyne, Suzanne, Dept of Theatre; Placier, Peggy, COE-ESCP; Ladehoff, Paul H., MU School of Law; Azizan-Gardner, Noor S., MU Chancellor's Diversity Initiative; Baum, Robert M., MU Religious Studies

Sponsor: Ford Foundation Difficult Dialogues Initiative

Dates of Project: 8/15/2008 - 8/14/2010

Funding Amount: $100,000

The University of Missouri is one of a handful of institutions to receive a Phase II grant from the Ford Foundation's Difficult Dialogues Initiative, according to Roger L. Worthington, the grant's Co-Principal Investigator. Phase II will focus on sustainability and replicability of the highly successful MU Difficult Dialogues program. MU was one of 27 institutions to receive the two-year Phase I grant from the Ford Foundation in 2006. "There were 675 institutional applications for Phase I, so only 3%-4% of applicants were awarded grants," Worthington said. "We were lucky to get that initial Phase I grant." In 2008, the Ford Foundation hand-selected and invited about half of the original Phase I awardees to submit renewal proposals. "For our Phase II award, we got an additional $100,000 for continued faculty development programs, with some modifications based on the Phase I program evaluation from Peggy Placier and Lisa Flores," Worthington said. Read More