CSUB receives grant to expand civil dialogue fellowship program

ICDP trains students on how to navigate political and cultural differences

By California State University, Bakersfield

July 29^th, 2025

A program that trains students on how to navigate political and cultural differences through civil dialogue will soon be able to broaden its reach thanks to a new grant.

Wake Forest University’s Educating Character Initiative has awarded a three-year, $500,000 Institutional Impact Grant to California State University, Bakersfield to support the Intercollegiate Civil Disagreement Partnership (ICDP).

The ICDP is a nationwide consortium of six colleges and universities — including CSUB — that each provide fellowships to six to eight undergraduate students every year. While CSUB received the funding because it is the primary institution connected to the grant, the money will be divided among each of the participating schools.

“I’m elated to receive the grant. It’s really a great sign of the importance of this program,” said Dr. Nate Olson, interim director of CSUB’s Kegley Institute of Ethics and principal investigator on the grant. “We live in a time when there’s a lot of division in our society, and this program is about how students can have conversations with people who have different opinions than they do.”

The grant will help expand the reach of ICDP, both at currently participating institutions and externally to other institutions. It will support the development and refinement of training resources that educators and students can use. Starting this fall, faculty will be able to participate in workshops introducing them to these materials.

The goal is to have faculty and students test these resources during the first year of the grant period. The partnership will then develop and launch a website that will house a database through which it can widely share the resources that have been developed.

“We want to make these materials more accessible to faculty and be able to impact more students across campus by teaching faculty how to incorporate these ideas in their classes,” Dr. Olson said.

The grant will also support a recruitment effort to bring in more institutional partners, with the goal that the program will be able to onboard up to 45 new institutions by the end of the three-year grant period.

As part of the effort, the ICDP will give new partners the mentorship and support needed for them to begin recruiting their first cohort of student fellows.

Dr. Olson said it was exciting to see CSUB take the lead in submitting a proposal for a grant that will not only impact students and faculty at the university but at colleges across the nation. It was an even bigger honor that the program was chosen as one of the grant recipients.

“Having a grant that allows us to expand this work and where CSUB can be a leader is fantastic,” Dr. Olson said. “It shows that we can do complex, big projects like this and bring this kind of funding to our campus. CSUB is at the forefront of this program that will be expanding to different universities across the country.”

Dr. Deborah Thien, CSUB’s new provost and vice president for Academic Affairs, congratulated the CSUB team for securing the funding.

“I am thrilled to celebrate the success of Dr. Olson and the team on this significant grant, which empowers CSUB to deepen our commitment to developing students of character — ethical leaders prepared to contribute meaningfully to their communities, careers and a more just society,” she said. “This national recognition further elevates CSUB’s profile as Kern County’s first-choice institution and a leader in values-driven education.”

Visit the Kegley Institute of Ethics website for more information about the Intercollegiate Civil Disagreement Partnership. Learn about CSUB’s 2024-25 ICDP student fellows here.