OSU-CHS awarded US Department of Education grant for civil discourse project

Friday, February 20, 2026

Media Contact: Sara Plummer | Senior Communications Coordinator | 918-561-1282 | sara.plummer@okstate.edu

Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences, along with other key partners, was awarded a FIPSE Special Projects grant of almost $4 million from the U.S. Department of Education for its project proposal on strengthening civil discourse on college campuses and beyond.

Matt Vassar, Ph.D., clinical assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and director of the Office of Medical Student Research at OSU-CHS, will serve as principal investigator on the project titled Witnessing Before Deliberating: A Testimony Based Framework for Campus Civil Discourse.

“We wanted a better way for students to learn how to engage seriously and respectfully with one another. Our partners wanted to create something practical, visible and institutionally grounded. Something that helps students practice responsibility, humility and civic maturity, not just express opinions,” Vassar said.

The project aims to develop a new approach to strengthening civil discourse by focusing first on emotional readiness.

“Instead of starting with debate, students begin with structured testimony and listening. Learning how to share their experiences, listen without interrupting and observe how hard conversations unfold,” he said. “Only after that foundation is built do students move into more traditional dialogue and deliberation formats.”

Vassar said the project’s core teaching structure is the speaker-listener-witness model, which trains students to speak from experience, practice deep listening and reflect on conversation dynamics with empathy and awareness.

“Listening and reflection are core to responsible leadership. They help students slow down, recognize complexity and engage others with respect, even when they disagree,” he said. “These skills support academic success, professional readiness and healthier campus relationships. And they align strongly with OSU’s land-grant mission of service and public engagement.”

The centerpiece of the project will be a 70-foot installation called the Witness Wall, which will travel across all five OSU campuses, Vassar said. 

Inside the installation, students can record testimonies and listen to others’ stories. Outside, they can contribute short reflections that, collectively, become a visual narrative of campus perspectives.

Vassar, who will oversee the overall design, partnerships, ethics and evaluation of the project, said it will span about four years, beginning with development and piloting, followed by campus deployment, and then sharing results nationally. The Witness Wall will be built and tested in the early stages of the project so it can travel to campuses as implementation begins.

Other project partners include the Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy, Let’s Fix This, Inc./Oklahoma Civic Engagement Table, Listen First Project, National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation, Oklahoma Oral History Research Program and OSU Center for the Humanities. 

Vassar said he hopes it helps students build practical skills for navigating disagreement without escalating conflict. 

“Adapting the model for the clinical setting means supporting future health professionals in listening deeply to patients, colleagues and communities during difficult conversations,” he said. “I hope students come away with a stronger sense of responsibility to listen carefully, to speak thoughtfully and to recognize their role in shaping civic culture.”