The Problem: In its Difficult Dialogues initiative, Ford Foundation encouraged colleges and universities to promote dialogue across difference, and academic freedom. Clark University was one of twenty-seven out of more than 700 applicants to receive the Difficult Dialogues grant, and sought help from PCP to develop its program.

The Shift: Clark hired the Public Conversations Project to provide consultation and training as it developed Difficult Dialogues, a program aimed at creating a climate for dialogue on campus. PCP Associates served as consultants in the Difficult Dialogues faculty development process, which was at "the heart" of the program and aimed to create an atmosphere of dialogue within the faculty.

In fall 2006, the program launched with a series of events, including campus-wide Days of Listening, symposia, course offerings, a film series, and other opportunities for conversation. In 2007, Clark began to use dialogue practices and tools to address four central topics—The State of Our Democracy, Race and Ethnicity, Religion and Tolerance, and Power.

Since then, the program has held three additional public symposium—Climate Change, Reclaiming our Common Wealth, and Where Do We Go from Here: Race in the Era of Obama. In addition, the program offers an average of fifteen dialogue-affiliated courses each semester, including the Dialogue Seminar—a course in which Clark students engage with the current symposium topic through focused dialogic practice.

As dialogue becomes a sustained presence at Clark, the program is exploring new contexts and opportunities with an ultimate goal of creating of a climate for dialogue on campus.