The School of Civic Life and Leadership
The School of Civic Life and Leadership (SCiLL) provides a home for the study and practice of public discourse, civic life, and civic leadership.
Mission
SCiLL educates citizens and leaders for constitutional self-government through free inquiry and civil discourse. We equip students with the knowledge, judgment, and habits to lead wisely, deliberate across differences, and live with purpose in a pluralistic American democracy.
About The School of Civic Life and Leadership
Established in 2023, SCiLL was created to meet one of the defining challenges of our time—the decline of civic knowledge and civil discourse. In just two years, SCiLL has recruited 20 distinguished faculty, taught over 1,300 students, and launched our first residential civics community here on campus. SCiLL also has adjunct faculty with tenure homes in more than seven different schools or departments across Carolina.
Under the leadership of Dean Jed Atkins, SCiLL is partnering within Carolina and across the state and nation to renew higher education’s public purpose—educating citizens who not only understand the freedoms our Constitution guarantees, but who also have the courage and capacity to use those freedoms well. Dean Atkins and his colleagues are building a model for universities across the nation, grounded in open inquiry, civil discourse, and the pursuit of meaning and truth.
SCiLL focuses on
Our Students
SCiLL offers students of all majors and career-paths a liberal art-based civic education, which equips them to live, think, act, and speak well in our pluralistic democracy. Our Libertas Scholars program provides financial support and co-curricular opportunities to some of Carolina’s top students. Study-away opportunities and research travel scholarships give students transformative educational experiences.
Carolina Campus
SCiLL offers students a residential experience in our civil discourse residential community (CivComm) and opportunities to practice public discourse through our Program for Public Discourse. Our Public Fellows Program provides faculty, staff, students, and the public opportunities for extended engagement with leading thinkers and doers who shape our public life. Campus partners include the School of Government, the Shuford Program for Entrepreneurship, Carolina Housing, and the North Carolina Collaboratory.
Our Community
Civil discourse orientation for state legislators; civil discourse programming for a bipartisan cohort of congressional chiefs-of-staff; hosting high school debate competitions; a Civics and Civil Discourse unit in J.F. Webb’s “Ready For Life Course"—SCiLL promotes the civic good of our community, state, and country.
Our Nation’s Educators
SCiLL offers a civics institute for high school educators and students as well as civil discourse seminars for university faculty from across the state and county.