(gentle music) - [Narrator] I do think America's divided, we have evidence of increasing partisan polarization in the political arena and we've seen increase in protests, that I think is an indication of people feeling, like they don't have voice, within the normal democratic process.

- America is a very divided country.

- We have Democrats and Republicans.

- Denial or nihilism.

- We're a country of diverse people, so, we're bound to be divided.

- Yeah, we've been divided from the start.

- For it not to be divided would mean that, we wouldn't have that pass.

- I would caution against being fearful of polarization, it's evidence that we're actually talking.

- We grow up around people who are a lot like us but we also know the world's bigger than that and I think our students wanna encounter that diversity, the range of the human experience and liberal arts is a place that they can do that.

- Growing up I was raised like evangelical, conservative, Christian.

- I do find a lot of community of students, who are going through the exact same thing.

- I can really share my culture with the people, that I'm friends with.

- My longtime roommate, we come from very different backgrounds.

- Not many people know much about Egyptians or have met an Egyptian other than me.

- It's important that, know that we have indigenous students here.

- I think when I got to university, I was just very surprised to see people who looked like me.

- It's really, really cool to have that experience of meeting someone I otherwise wouldn't have.

- Look at the world around you, embracing a conversation with somebody, who's different than you, gain that extra perspective.

- The core of our liberal arts education is learning how to take information and then use that information to make an argument, to people who you might disagree with.

- I always have kind of been rightward leaning, I suppose.

- Well, I would say I'm a liberal.

- It's okay to be different in my beliefs.

- It's not about finding a middle ground, it's about acknowledging your differences and testing your own beliefs.

- When we disagree the people that we disagree with, have their reasons and it's incumbent upon us, to understand what those reasons are.

- That's what true diversity is to have tolerance but I think it's a very tricky line, between what we tolerate and what we don't tolerate.

- We are such an individualist kind of people, that I think we're actually pretty tolerant of individuals from a lot of different backgrounds but when we start thinking in group terms, collections of people who are bigger than us, are different from us, that's harder for a lot of Americans to process.

- Educating people on the alternatives and once people know that there are better alternatives, they at least have the option.

- We need to learn how to assess our views and our opinions but I think it's also important to teach students, how to assess information?

How do we present an argument in a coherent fashion, that's clear and understandable, to somebody who disagrees with us?

- When people feel like they're in a safe space, they also feel like they're able to learn, about other people's experiences, about their own experiences.

- You know, I know more about my history, that I wouldn't have learned about, if I had not gone to a school, like the University of Minnesota.

- I've appreciated the opportunity, to learn how my personal identities, play into different systems.

- I really don't believe, we need to have a consensus always.

- I would say that university so far at least, has shown me a lot of experiences, I wouldn't have garnered otherwise.

- Liberal arts provides a space for us to think imaginatively and creatively, past the differences that divide us.

- A lot of, sort of the political, it's just that we see today, especially when we're talking about those divides, are really just changes in how we understand and think about and want democracy to progress.

- The right policies hopefully then just flow naturally, from having a better understanding of how the world works.

- And when we think of each other we do so much more and for me that's what my education here, at the University of Minnesota has been about.