On a warm November day, a group of Columbia University professors set up “listening tables” near the center of campus and hailed students rushing to class, inviting them to stop and talk.

About a dozen students, alumni and faculty members sat down, grabbed some free pizza and chatted about how the protests over the Israel-Hamas war had alienated some of them and inspired others.

Then, a woman in a kaffiyeh, the traditional Palestinian scarf, spoke up and the tension rose. Over the past year, her view of the conflict had evolved, she told the group. She talked about “this genocide.”

“I wouldn’t call it a genocide,” said Scott Barry Kaufman, an adjunct psychology professor moderating the group. “Do you hate me because I disagree with you?”

No, she did not hate him — “for that reason,” she said.

“Ouch,” Dr. Kaufman replied.

As campuses have been caught up in protests and counterprotests over the Israel-Hamas war, universities have tried to regain control and dial down the temperature, driven in part by pressure from outside forces like alumni, politicians and federal civil rights investigations into antisemitism on campuses. In the spring, some resorted to force, with arrests and suspensions.

Now, more of them are trying the gentler but also messy art of conversation as an antidote to student unrest.