This semester is the first time UNC is offering courses for the controversial School of Civic Life and Leadership, with significant changes made to the school since inaugural faculty was announced in October 2023.
In March, the University announced that Jed Atkins, former director of Duke University’s Civil Discourse Project, would be the director and dean of SCiLL. Since his appointment, 11 new faculty members have been hired, and multiple original faculty told The Daily Tar Heel that they are no longer part of the school.
This semester, students can enroll in one or two new classes: Foundations of Civic Life and Leadership and Practice of Civic Life and Leadership. An honors section of Foundations is also available. These courses are two foundational requirements for the new SCiLL minor.
Danielle Charette, a political theorist teaching Foundations of Civic Life and Leadership next semester, said the course is the "bread and butter" of the school. According to the UNC course catalog, the class “provides an understanding of the big questions surrounding civic life and leadership.”
“To study the history of political thought, you have to inhabit lots of different ideas that might seem really foreign or really wrong,” Charette said. “Hopefully that makes students more open to different sides of a debate.”
According to the SCiLL website, the new minor consists of 15 credits: the two new classes, two electives from three separate categories and a capstone course, which is still in development.
Atkins said Practice of Civic Life and Leadership will teach students to be able to disagree well and practice civil discourse. According to the syllabus for the course, the class is meant to train students in the finer points of communicating, thinking and argument by drawing attention to the practices and patterns that constitute civic and democratic life.
“Like anything, civil discourse is something that you get better at the more you do it,” Atkins said. “You learn how to disagree better by doing it, by learning how to listen to the other person, by being more charitable in your interpretations of their point of view.”
Evan Shotwell, a sophomore taking Practice of Civic Life and Leadership, said he enrolled in the class because he thinks learning how to talk to people with different political affiliations and opinions is necessary.
