On Monday through Thursday every other week, UVA Batten students have been meeting in the Deloitte student lounge at Garrett Hall this semester, sharing a meal while discussing pertinent policy topics.
The Batten Dialogue Dinners program was founded by MPP/JD student Kyle Riopelle in the spring of 2024, partly inspired by similar programming done at the Karsh Institute of Democracy. For its return this spring, the program has seen its participation double from about 25 students to over 50, at the undergraduate and graduate levels.
“I came into grad school wanting to build community and talk to people with different perspectives,” said Rachel Fu (MPP ’25), who, along with Ian Novak (MPP ’25), were participants in last year’s Dialogue Dinner inaugural cohort and stepped up to lead the program this year. “This was the perfect opportunity to do that.”
Fu, who came to Batten from Cal State Fullerton with a background in education policy, said the dinners have allowed for a unique learning opportunity she hasn’t experienced otherwise at Batten.
“I just felt like it was a very rich conversation,” Fu said. “It made me feel better about where our country is going, because I got to talk to people who might have different perspectives, but we all hope to see an America that works better for the average American.”
For each dinner, there’s a shared online document of potential discussion topics, but the intention is for most conversations to take place organically and for students to get to know each other on a personal level before talking about policy.
“I think if we just went straight into politics, it’d be really uncomfortable,” Fu said. “But getting to know where everybody’s from, what they care about, and what they want to accomplish gives me a lot of hope. I hear things I’d never even thought about as problems, and I meet people who want to fix them.”
Novak said both his experience watching disagreements play out among students on Grounds paired with his time on UVA’s Honor Committee, pushed him to help create a space where differences could be acknowledged.
“We tailor the groups so that we hope there’s disagreement, but the kind that allows people to see it’s okay to disagree,” Novak said. “It’s important to have those conversations now and continue them later, rather than just building walls between each other.”
Dialogue Dinners aim to foster community within Batten while also allowing for a space where students can disagree openly with each other. The program is committed to representing diverse policy interests, and topics range from the Trump administration to foreign policy and more theoretical concepts, like what it means to be American.
“Bringing in people from a variety of different backgrounds, geographies, etc, we see that we can find win-win situations for everyone that benefit all of society, so that we’re not leaving anyone out, which is what happens when you only have a certain opinion or group of people speaking on behalf of the whole,” said participating student Adam Koussih, (MPP ’26).
Fellow participating student Jack Malo (MPP ’25) shared the sentiment, reflecting on how Dialogue Dinners offer a space for students to explore nuance.
“I think when you start to dig down into policy issues, like income inequality, when we start talking about the minimum wage, I think that’s where you find the nuance of opinion,” Malo said. “And you’ll see people that have different perspectives on how we should solve the same problem, but less so.”
Fu sees the program’s growth over the past year as a sign of its value to the Batten and UVA community.
“Right now, in this political moment, it’s been really helpful for me to have community and to talk to others,” Fu said. “There’s solidarity in these conversations.”
Beyond just policy discussions, the dinners aim to cultivate empathy, mutual understanding, and a stronger Batten community.
“I hope people come out of it more empathetic and focused on community development,” Fu said. “We have such a strong sense of independence in this country, but communities don’t thrive in silos. They thrive when we look out for each other.”
Novak and Fu hope the program continues to grow. They’re already in conversation with the Karsh Institute to build a stronger partnership, and they’ve started conversations to see which students will take over the program next year. Both emphasized the importance of having tough policy conversations outside of the classroom.
“I’m hoping that participants get out of this that it is okay to disagree with people,” Novak said. “In fact, you should be disagreeing with people.”
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