The University of Iowa College of Law’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committee is aiming to teach students how to effectively engage in civil discourse.

The program, “Across the Aisle,” is the first of its kind at the UI, and is modeled after a similar program at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School.

Mihailis Diamantis, a UI professor of law who is organizing the event, said that the program is teaching a critical skill that students will need in their law careers.

“So this exercise of learning people’s perspectives, how to step into them and understand them, even outside of the politics context, just in terms of practice, being a lawyer,” Diamantis said. “I think it’s a crucial skill.”

The first installment of the program is centered around immigration in the U.S., including topics like voting rights and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Diamantis said that he has seen an overall positive reaction from the students who have attended this program.

Serena Qamhieh, a UI second-year College of Law student, said that she has seen many of her peers react positively and has heard productive conversations during the program.

“During the event, it was quite loud in the room,” Qamhieh said. “So it seemed like the conversations were productive and good.”

Qamhieh, alongside another second-year law student, Hibah Lateef, helped Diamantis organize the program.

Lateef said she learned that having discussions can make a difference because there are a lot of misconceptions surrounding different ideas.

“For example, like we did it on immigration this time, and one of the subtopics was abolish ICE and a lot of people coming in had a completely different perspective on what abolish ICE meant, versus what they understood about it after they left,” Lateef said.

Before the start of the program, Diamantis was apprehensive about the program, not knowing how the conversations would play out.

“We’re talking about some very good topics right that implicate students’ lives at the law school and people are going to have different opinions and may have different perspectives,” Diamantis said.

Diamantis said he realized that the point of the program is to allow people to hear different perspectives about a topic.

“We wanted to give a safe space and constructive environment for having that and the students have responded very positively,” Diamantis said.

The next installment of “Across the Aisle” will occur in April and will focus on gun control in the U.S.

“I think we’ll get some good breakdown of opinion there for good conversation,” Diamantis said.

Diamantis said that this won’t be the only year that the college will offer the program.

“Assuming that event goes as well as the first one, I think, on the DEI committee were envisioning this potentially becoming a fixture of the DEI programming,” Diamantis said.