A new spring semester course, Reclaiming Democracy: Dialogue, Decision Making and Community Action, aims to lead students and faculty members from a wide range of backgrounds in exploring democracy in the Greensboro area.

This course is co-taught by professors from six local colleges and community activist Ed Whitfield. Elon’s Assistant Professor of Philosophy Stephen Schulman will join professors from Bennett College, Greensboro College, Guilford College, North Carolina A&T State University and UNC-Greensboro in leading the course.

Students will focus on democracy within the context of historical precedents and current events in Greensboro, and will explore issues of education, economics and human rights.

“One of the main goals of this course is to get students to ask questions,” Schulman said. “For example, ‘how do we reclaim our democracy as a humane, inclusive process that is responsible to the needs of all members of our community? And what does this require of us, as citizens?’”

Schulman hopes students will examine how the community exercises its democratic rights. Students will determine the “needs of the people of Greensboro, explore how we got where we are, and assess the direction that we need to go,” Schulman said.

The course is designed to directly engage the local community, offering enrollment to community members as well as students. Faculty members hope this will bring further diversity to the course.

Professor Sherry Giles of Guilford College emphasized the importance of community engagement in this course. She said the diversity of students and faculty members will contribute to discussions on the true meaning of democracy.

“[Reclaiming Democracy] will bring together the perspectives of people from outside of the ‘bubble’ that students often find themselves in on their campus,” Giles said. “I hope students will take away an awareness of the power that ordinary people in a community can have on the issues that affect their lives when they take action.”

In a further attempt at involving the community in the course, students will participate in a conference with community members to discuss the state of local democracy on April 26 in Greensboro.

“The goal is to make this as public as possible,” Schulman said. “It’s about action in terms of holding people accountable.”

Reclaiming Democracy is a four credit philosophy course, and will meet Mondays from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Elon Law School. Students will also meet in small groups Wednesdays from 6 to 7:30 p.m. on Elon’s main campus. During the Monday meetings, six professors will take turns lecturing. The small group study will consist of discussions on various topics such as the desegregation movement in Greensboro, sit-ins, and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Reporter: Ashley Dischinger - 11/14/07