Participants in the workshop and open forums were invited to submit additional ideas and comments about any of the topics under discussion. The following comments have been received on the topic of the School of Peace Studies.

• Partner with the Peace Corps.
• Partner with the United Farm Workers.
• Have programs that link government, NGOs, and private sector to develop profitable, sustainable business opportunities for the very poor (5 billion people).
• Utilize video conferencing technologies so that all constituencies within the university can access “voices and perspectives” from around the world. Transmit, receive, interact.
• How does the current Institute factor into the School? What, then, becomes the Institute’s role?
• What does NROTC’s role in the Peace Studies program look like?
• What about a program for students that involves immersion into a culture for peace?
• Communicate the legitimacy of programs not only to supporters but to skeptics.
• While looking outward and south to the world, do not ignore opportunities to promote peace in our community, which includes many who are alienated from the institutions that promote domestic harmony.
• Having an interdisciplinary focus will be important.
• Many of the themes from the Strategic Directions workshop do not seem related to an academic enterprise and suggest vocational training or the work of a non-profit. I would like to see more focus on the School as an academic unit and develop rigor in the curriculum and focus on peace studies as if it were a physics department – that is, recognize a core of knowledge and scholarship in the field and see to advance that field. The School will not be a center of excellence for USD if it tries to be all things to all people.
• USD cannot create an academic unit in the absence of a dean and faculty. We can discuss this, but until we select dean and faculty, the final direction will not be set and should not.
• Waiting 5 years for the School to be up and running is too slow! Why such a delay?
• Academic research in this area requires field experience in many cases. Encourage field research/practical/internships as part of program. Fits USD’s “social action” approach.
• Open forums are nice but I would hope we don’t try to shape the new School in this way – needs to be developed by professionals/academics in the field of Peace and Justice Studies.
• I'm assuming Psychological Science is one of those A&S subject areas included but not named specifically in Theme #4. I would argue that it is CRITICAL to the mission and goals of the program particularly in developing the program's research base. Peace Psychology is a rapidly growing area of research in psychological science.  The Society for the Study of Peace, Conflict, and Violence (Division 48 of the American Psychological Association) was established in 1990 (www.peacepsych.org).  Its major goals are:
  1. to encourage psychological research, education, and training on issues concerning peace, nonviolent conflict resolution, reconciliation, and the causes, consequences and prevention of war and other forms of destructive conflict;
  2. to provide an organization that fosters communication among researchers, teachers, and practitioners who are working on peace issues; and
  3. to apply the knowledge and the methods of psychology in the advancement of peace, non-violent conflict resolution, reconciliation, and the prevention of war and other forms of destructive conflict
  Almost every area in psychology can contribute to understanding issues concerning peace.  Research in social, cognitive, developmental, motivational, clinical, health, cross-cultural and educational psychology are particularly relevant.  Within social psychology alone, research on stereotyping and prejudice, social influence, persuasion, aggression, empathy, intergroup conflict and negotiation are just a few of the areas helping us understand  influences on peaceful and violent behavior.  Within cognitive psychology, research on thinking and judgment processes help us understand factors underlying critical thinking, conceptual change, and the escalation and the de-escalation of conflict.
• My greatest fear is that we as a nation are losing the ability to reason objectively and to value scientific reasoning because we don't understand it.  I think a research foundation for the Peace Studies program is critical.
• The new School of Peace Studies presents an additional opportunity to enhance our Latin America connections. There are numerous human rights issues, conflict zones, and issues related to the rule of law and the administration of justice in Latin America. While the IPJ currently taps into some of these issues, the USD School of Peace Studies should also have a regional focus on Latin America (including a specific academic course of study).
• Consider "development" as a program track in the spirit of Jeffrey Sach’s new book “The End of Poverty,” in which he proposes for a new field of “clinical economics” (i.e. economics applied to very sick economies) that will draw on community health, political science, cultural anthropology, engineering, etc. It needs to be very interdisciplinary, a USD strength, and looks like a great "playground" for new Ph.D. students. Perhaps we could consider this as an important area of research and teaching for the new School and consciously draw on existing faculty expertise as well as drawing in new experts.
• Because USD is a Catholic institution, our peace studies should focus on exploring why the most war-torn regions of the world are in fact very religious. Why are religious communities resistant to change, especially in the Judeo-Christian-Islamic world? It would be great to see scholars studying the connection of violence and religion as a part of the new school. I suppose a peace studies program at UCSD could appropriately focus on world health/hunger connection to world peace, because of their strong background in medical research. It would make sense for USD’s new school to become unique, by focusing on the role of religion in understanding violence and ultimate peace-making.