Contentious agricultural issues are complex and interconnected through multiple elements. This requires students to expand their systems thinking skills and develop a holistic understanding of issues. Students’ perceptions, knowledge, and attitudes toward agricultural issues can be influenced by their background experiences and geographic location, which potentially limits their ability to understand the nuances of issues in different regions. Collaborative efforts among universities teaching agricultural issues courses can potentially expose students to diverse perspectives beyond their home environments. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine how a collaborative class session in an agricultural issues course between two universities impacted students’ perceptions, knowledge, and attitudes regarding agricultural issues. Students (n = 38) in agricultural issues courses at [University] and [University] participated in a joint class session via Zoom during the fall 2025 semester. After introductions, students were provided guiding questions regarding the biggest agricultural issue facing their state and divided into breakout rooms for discussions. After each breakout session, students debriefed with the larger group to reflect upon their discussions. At the conclusion of the class, students completed a 13 item, researcher-created survey instrument to measure perceptions and knowledge around agricultural issues. Students ranked “urbanization/loss of farmland” and “sustainable agriculture” as the two most important issues, and the “veterinary feed directive” and “conventional vs. organic” as the least important issues. Students agreed their perspective of agricultural issues in different states expanded and they learned more about agricultural issues in another state. Furthermore, students indicated that they were surprised the agricultural issues in another state were different than what they expected They also expressed a high level of enjoyment for the joint class and reported being confident in their knowledge to advocate about agricultural issues. Based on these positive results, the instructors plan to continue and expand the collaborative class session.