Creating safe spaces for community dialogue
In view of the university's ascribed role in nation building, Ateneo de Manila continuously creates spaces for community dialogue and for influencing public policy making.
One way Ateneo achieves this is through the conduct of regular forums to address contemporary issues. One good example of this is the Senatorial Forum held in 2019 that intended to understand the platform of the various senatorial candidates. Prior to the pandemic, academic departments such as the Interdisciplinary Studies Department in collaboration with the Campus Ministry held a Muslim-Christian dialogue to discuss contentious societal issue of the autonomous Bangsamoro nation of southern Philippines.
In these times, the dialogue has started shifting to virtual spaces as well. There are many different opportunities for these but one is best exemplified by the School of Social Sciences’ Institute of Philippine Culture webinars for articulating ideas and positions. This format has captured the voices of national and multi-sectoral youth leaders.