Invitations to Practice Democracy

If a comment violates a guideline, which happens on occasion, the student leaders overseeing the wall confer with DID Lab faculty and fellow students and, if necessary, remove the response. Since student dialogue fellows engage with stakeholders in the areas of campus where DID Walls are located and responses are written in public view, a level of connection and accountability develops that leads students and other participants to engage constructively and become more invested in a climate of respectful dialogue. Other college campuses use democracy walls as well, most notably Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), which launched its Democracy Plaza with several chalkboards in a prominent outdoor location during the 2004 presidential election. [...]Miami University-Hamilton in Ohio, Kennesaw State University in Georgia, and Maricopa Community Colleges in Arizona (in partnership with the Phoenix public library) have experimented with democracy walls.