By Rebecca Portnoy, Associate Director of Communications , Concordia College

Nov. 25, 2020: The Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) has named Concordia College President John A. Nunes to its newly launched Academic Leaders Task Force on Campus Free Expression.    

The Bipartisan Policy Center is a Washington, DC-based think tank with a mission that “actively fosters bipartisanship by combining the best ideas from both parties to promote health, security, and opportunity for all Americans.”  

According to the BPC's press release, the task force has been launched to meet the need for a reliable roadmap universities can use to “craft meaningful free expression strategies that suit a changing higher education landscape while staying true to their institution’s unique mission and their commitments to diversity and inclusion.” The group is tasked with identifying “practices, programs, and policies that foster robust campus cultures.”  

President Nunes joins a distinguished cohort of eleven leaders, including the presidents of Dillard University, University of Richmond and Baylor University, and the former governors of Washington and Vermont.  All were chosen for their demonstrated ability to foster tolerance and the open exchange of ideas at a range of higher education institutions.  

In his first year at Concordia, President Nunes instituted Dialogues on the Quad, an ongoing, campus-wide series of conversations. Complex and timely topics are chosen to elicit wide-ranging opinions from well-informed panelists. Students are given time off from class for the events, and enthusiastically engage in civil discourse across difference along with staff and faculty.   

“I am honored to be part of this conversation,” said President Nunes. “I firmly believe that fostering free expression within a respectful and inclusive educational environment can help build the bridges and avenues of understanding that are so needed now.”    

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