People are inconsiderate and rude. Enough people, at least, to cause the president to ask for more civil discourse and to warrant an academic study into how to cope with the roots of incivility in society.
On Wednesday, September 29, at 8 p.m. Rutgers University officially launches its two-year Project Civility at its College Avenue Campus in New Brunswick with a presentation by Pier Massimo Forni of Johns Hopkins University. The event is open to the public and free to attend. Visit www.projectcivility.rutgers.edu.
Forni is no mere keynote speaker. He is the architect of the Civility Project at Johns Hopkins, founded in 1997, and one of the country’s top authorities on what it means to have a polite society. His work in the field, in fact, has led to New Jersey getting its own civility project at Rutgers University.
Forni will address the school, which will seek input from its students and the community over the next two years about how polite we are (or aren’t) and how our behavior affects society, the workplace, and home life.
Rutgers’ project coordinator Kathleen Hull says the topic is as relevant as ever, and even more so as we still make our way in a newly digital world. “We’re looking to generate the conversation,” Hull says.
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