I’m consistently impressed with the Utah Legislature, Utah’s federal delegation, and how they model the “Utah Way” of collaboration, hard work, and problem-solving. However, more broadly, this commitment stands in stark contrast to the non-collaborative, issue-avoidant political shutdown.

At Weber State, we are on the frontlines of Utah’s workforce, educating citizens and future leaders who also exemplify the Utah Way. This makes the federal shutdown especially frustrating for our community. At a university where we teach civic dialogue, a government shutdown sends a harmful message to students.

Zooming in on our local workforce, the shutdown is impacting an estimated 40,000 federal employees across Utah. More locally, the Internal Revenue Service in Ogden has seen significant furloughs and the threat of mass layoffs for its thousands of employees. Down the street, military facilities like Hill Air Force Base have sent home or furloughed civilian personnel, like several of my family members and other Weber State students. Others have been required to work national defense missions without pay. The impacts of a government shutdown are imposing additional pressures on our students, impacting their ability to focus on and afford their education.

Although the economic cost of the government shutdown is high, perpetuating a shutdown mentality may be the most costly consequence to individual students and families. As many will relate, I’ve had conversations recently, even with those who know me best, that unfortunately end at a minor emotional or political inconvenience. Although feeling safe to converse is imperative, we don’t serve our future by concluding that one’s emotional comfort is more important than honest dialogue or truth-seeking.

Perhaps Washington, D.C., could learn a bit from our state. Utah’s legislature has consistently demonstrated fiscal responsibility and an ability to pass a balanced budget on time, in spite of many viewpoint differences and imperfections. What the Utah Legislature accomplishes is a model of governing that contrasts the federal impasse. It’s this commitment to facing difficult questions and conversations we strive to teach our students.

Especially as we commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, we remember a document born from months of contentious debate among delegates who held radically different beliefs. We teach students civic dialogue through the exemplary choice of our Founding Fathers to keep arguing, to compromise, and to put pen to paper. They embodied perseverance, contrasting modern propensities to cancel, ghost, or simply walk away.

Ultimately, I’m curious what perpetual government shutdowns teach. Do they teach that differing views are dangerous? Do they teach that the only viable response to conflict is avoidance? This is the antithesis of a university education. In Utah, we should work to reject the instinct for conversational furlough. We should choose the persistent, often tiring, work of dialogue over the easy default of shutting down. We need to encourage our leaders to practice the very principles they hope students learn: How to find solutions.

The instinct to shut down is an erosion of the durable, resilient spirit that built Utah and the nation. Our democracy, the stability of our workforce, and the lessons we pass to the next generation depend on our willingness to stay at the table, even when the debate gets heated, uncomfortable, or difficult.

Kade Crittenden is Director of Government Relations and Special Projects at Weber State University, where he advocates for and studies public institutions of higher education and how they are impacted by state level politics. The views expressed by the author do not necessarily represent the institutional values or positions of the university.