UVA’s ‘Public Service Pathways’ is Transforming Campus Culture

Few institutions have faced the complexity of their history as directly as UVA. From the shadow of the 2017 Unite the Right rally to the complex legacy of Thomas Jefferson, the university has become a place where meaningful conversations about tough topics aren’t just necessary—they’re expected. Louis Nelson, UVA’s Vice Provost for Academic Outreach, explains how students are gaining the skills to bridge divides and foster real understanding through the Public Service Pathways program. 

How the Public Service Pathways program is promoting productive conversations at UVA 

Louis Nelson: Public Service Pathways is a program of undergraduate engagement, which means it’s not a major, it’s not a minor, it’s a four-year experience that prepares students for a life of public service. There are six core competencies that we think are central to the formation of a public citizen— deep listening and understanding community complexity are two examples. We partner with the Karsh Institute of Democracy to incorporate engaged dialogue across difference as a required class in their second year. At the beginning of the course, we survey students’ political perspectives, their communities of origin, their family background, their work and volunteer experiences, and other dimensions of their identities. We take all that data and pair students with those who share some similarities and identify points of difference. Students are going into these conversations knowing that they have some common ground, but they also know that they have some differences. We walk them through a series of prompts to invite them to learn how to listen across difference. The point is not to convert the other person to your viewpoint, it’s learning to see the other person’s humanity in an appreciation for how they came to their perspective. Our students report that this is one of the most impactful components of the entire four-year experience, which is just really encouraging feedback.  

We are in our third year of the program, and we have between 100-150 new students enrolling each year. Since we want this to be part of the DNA of every undergraduate student’s experience, we have a low bar for entry. But at the same time, it is important that this remains voluntary.   

On the slow and steady work of changing a campus culture 

Louis Nelson: It’s our charge as program faculty and staff to make Public Service Pathways as appealing as possible and to have it broadly distributed across the undergraduate population. We recognize we will never reach 100% participation. But if we can reach half of the student population, that means that the program has clearly become integrated into the DNA of the undergraduate experience at the University. At that point, when admitted students are deciding where to go to college, they are thinking about UVA as “the democracy and public service university.” And it is important also that this program is not sector driven. This is not just about sending students into non-profit or civil service. We want biochemists and business students, artists and data scientists, to think about the ways that their career can orient toward the public good. This is about shaping one’s imagination as a citizen towards public flourishing, whether you’re in DC, Wall Street, small town America, or in Silicon Valley.  

It is also important to realize that this is a 10-year project, not a two-year project. This is a big lift, and it depends on ensuring that this program is growing in impact over time. 

Why hard conversations are part of the UVA experience – from the 2017 Unite the Right Rally to Jefferson’s Legacy 

Louis Nelson: I think that the political complexity that has centered on Charlottesville and the University of Virginia over the last decade has actually been a remarkable opportunity for us to learn how to have the hard conversations. I mean, if there has been a national crisis in the last decade, it either happened here or had some expression here. We’ve not been shy about the need to engage in hard-hitting, complicated, highly politicized issues that have forced conversation. I think our student population is increasingly comfortable with and articulate in navigating that complexity just because of where we are. And contrary to the common stereotype, I experience this generation of students as assuming complexity. They are done with the false promises of simple solutions to complex problems.  

For example, the renaming of buildings has been an important issue here as it has at many universities. What is the right relationship between the past and the present? As a research university, our response should be built on a well-informed foundation of historical research and systematic analysis. And when that research suggests or insists on some kind of action, we’re going to take it. This was the context behind the Memorial to Enslaved Laborers. And because our architecture is so poignant at the University of Virginia – it’s so Jeffersonian, it’s so specific – the most effective way for us to bring nuance and complexity to that narrative was to add something to the landscape. But, by installing the Memorial, we also have never considered taking down the Thomas Jefferson statute. Jefferson is central to our story and, of course, his presence raises very complicated histories, some of which we deplore and others we celebrate. And so keeping him in the landscape forces us to do the work of walking as a community through those hard conversations. We’re inviting our students into complexity without giving them a direct answer that says, “This is a solution.” We’re examining our own past, because our past has shaped our present. By that I mean many things, but most explicitly, there are individuals in our community who can trace their ancestry to the enslaved population here at the university. Others live in neighborhoods immediately adjacent to our Grounds. Some work at the university. Some of those descendants are our students. They are in my classroom; they are us. And so, this is, in fact, not just a question about the past. It is a complex discussion about the relationship of the past to the present and it is an invitation for us to engage the hard conversations that help us shape our future, hopefully a future shaped by emerging leaders prepared to listen deeply to the experiences of their neighbors, to see and embrace difference as essential to each community, and equipped to pursue the flourishing of their neighbor, and to lean into the hard work of building our democracy together.