On any given day at UCLA, the hum of conversation fills classrooms, residence halls, office corridors. But in an era when public discourse is often fractured (that’s putting it nicely), true dialogue — the kind that really builds understanding rather than foments division — has become harder and harder to find. Enter UCLA’s new Campus Community Conversations series, part of UCLA Connects, a campuswide effort to strengthen the bonds that unite the Bruin community.
Championed by Chancellor Julio Frenk, the initiative is chaired by Nicole Presley ’97, senior executive director of UCLA Student Resilience and Mental Health Services, and David Myers, distinguished professor and director of the Bedari Kindness Institute.
Campus Community Conversations aims “to build consensus around the fundamental questions of our coexistence,” the chancellor said in his inaugural address to the campus in June. “What does each of us owe to fellow members of our community? And what can each of us expect from fellow members of our community? By undertaking this kind of conversation, we will provide a valuable service not only to our university and higher education, but to society as a whole at this time of extreme polarization.”
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The series seeks to bring those words to life through a network of UCLA programs already nurturing this culture of connection. The Bedari Kindness Institute’s Dialogue Across Difference initiative has trained more than a thousand Bruins in managing disagreement with empathy; its Compassionate Conversations event series highlights speakers who exemplify compassion in the face of difference. UCLA Student Affairs and the Resilience In Your Student Experience (RISE) Center provide spaces for students to come together and discuss challenging topics safely and without judgment as a community. And a new effort to refresh UCLA’s True Bruin Values invites Bruins to unite around a common purpose, take personal accountability for decisions and bring shared values into their everyday lives at UCLA. Campus Community Conversations offers an umbrella under which all of these activities can thrive.
Chancellor Frenk sees the series as part of a broader goal to build a community where everyone feels included, respected and safe, as well as a way to help teach students the essential life skill of using reason and dialogue to resolve differences.
Whether in social circles or campuswide forums, Bruins are learning to lean into discomfort — and to listen. In the process, UCLA hopes to shape not only a more connected campus, but a more connected society.
Read more from UCLA Magazine’s Winter 2026 issue.
