Utah State University to offer conflict resolution classes as part of general curriculum

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah State University students will soon have the opportunity to take peace-building classes as part of the general curriculum.

The university’s Heravi Peace Institute received a grant worth just under $750,000 to fund the classes. The faculty worked on the grant for about 18 months before submitting it in May.

“I would love to see in the next three to five years, when this grant is complete, that we would have an opportunity to reach every single Utah State student with some basic peace-building skills,” said Austin Knuppe, director of the Heravi Peace Institute.

The first general education classes will be offered in August 2026.

While not every student who completes these courses and receives their certificate will become a negotiator or a diplomat, Knuppe said everyone still needs the skills to resolve conflict.

“We want to equip them to be peace builders, integrating that skill set and that disposition, those character traits into their vocation as a journalist or as a professor, as a nurse, or as a mother, or as a teacher.”

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Another part of the grant will go toward their Space-Makers program. This is a place where students can talk to other students about conflicts, big decisions, or other problems in their lives. Students who volunteer to listen have been trained on how to listen and resolve conflict and are passionate about creating a safe space.

“We want to create people that are peacemakers in their own life, not just people that know about peace or know about theories of peace or conflict transformation, but (also) have sound character,” Knuppe said.