I received an email from Dr Michael Spence, UCL President & Provost yesterday regarding events in the Middle East.
It was a global distribution to the entirety of UCL, but it struck me not only as an excellent piece of writing but also as an embodiment of the critical thinking and discourse that the university advocates.
UCL promotes the concept of 'Disagreeing Well' and there are a substantial number of resources (all publicly available) which might also be of interest. The Disagreement Style Assessment is a good point of departure and only takes a few minutes to complete.
As we all know, being a diverse community means being home to a diverse range of life experiences, viewpoints and opinions on a range of issues, and this conflict will be no different. When emotions and stress levels are high, it becomes easy to make an enemy of anyone who holds an opinion with which we strongly disagree, especially if we feel their view not only wrong, but one that touches on issues core to our identity. I would ask, then, that everyone is aware that others around us may be in great pain and fear at the moment, that we are considerate in how we talk about the conflict and, indeed, that we recognise the right of individuals not to talk about it at all should they prefer it. Above all, we should understand that someone who holds a point of view different to our own is still a member of our community and, as such, deserving of respect.
