The Dreier RoundTable (DRt) at Claremont McKenna College took to the national stage during the 2024-25 academic year, presenting Civility Awards to U.S. Governors Spencer Cox and Jared Polis. The duo were honored for bridging the political divide through their collaboration on the Disagree Better Initiative.
The DRt recognized the Governors at two separate events, the culmination of the DRt’s ongoing efforts to offer a range of hands-on learning opportunities designed to foster civil discourse on campus and inspire students to engage with diverse perspectives and promote understanding through meaningful conversations. During the fall semester, the DRt hosted an op-ed writing contest, as well as several Oxford-style debates that explored topics such as immigration and the electoral college.
With the aim to inspire CMC students to become leaders in the public sphere, Dreier launched the Civility Awards to honor “public servants who engage in a vigorous clash of ideas” while understanding that “their political adversary is not their enemy.”
The DRt honored Cox and Polis for co-chairing the bipartisan National Governors Association Disagree Better Initiative, which is “for Governors to model how to disagree better, setting an example and creating the permission structure and template for other public officials at every level to follow.”
“The leadership that you and Jared are showing now has been a model for anyone who is engaged in public service, said CMC Trustee and DRt founder David Dreier ’75, who served in Congress as a Republican from 1981-2013.
Cox told the audience who gathered at the Athenaeum for the award presentation in November: “I didn’t get elected to be the Republican Governor of Utah. I was elected to be the Governor of Utah. My job is to represent the entire state, not just the Republican Party.”
Following the award presentation, Cox and Dreier joined a conversation on the importance of civil discourse in U.S. politics moderated by Aditya Pai ’13 a member of the DRt advisory board. Dreier explained how he and former Democratic Governor of Montana, Steve Bullock ’88 P’24—the inaugural recipient of the DRt Civility Award and a member of the DRt advisory board—jointly decided to recognize Cox and Polis because of the pair’s demonstrated “commitment to turning down the temperature in American politics.”
In October, after Colorado Governor Polis, a Democrat, was honored at the Athenaeum, he engaged in a conversation on the future of American politics with Dreier and Professor Jack Pitney. Later he posted on social media: “This award highlights our ability to work together for a brighter future. Thank you, Representative David Dreier and the students at Claremont McKenna College. We all have a role to play in this effort.”