IOWA COLLEGE OF LAW — Iowa Law’s DEI committee piloted a new program last week called Across the Aisle. The program seeks to bridge divides and bring people with different perspectives into conversation with each other. The first topic was immigration. Prior to the event participants were asked to answer questions to determine where they stood on specific issues related to immigration in the United States including voting rights, ICE, and economic implications. Participants were paired up with people who had differing views than their own. Rather than reaching a consensus, the goal was to simply replace snark with civil dialogue and help prevent avoidance of people who don’t necessarily have the same opinions. As the participants conversed throughout the event, it was hoped that they’d learn how to understand other perspectives without changing their own. “The students, staff, and faculty who attended Across the Aisle made the event a great success. Their conversations were robust and respectful. They showed that UIowa is a place where deep disagreement can coincide with the mutual recognition that we are all doing our best to understand a complicated, far-from-perfect world,” stated Mihalilis Diamantis, the Iowa Law professor who organized the event, “My motivation was to promote a mutual understanding even beyond disagreement, to open a space for conversation and possibly even compromise.”