Location:
Grimes Hall, 2^nd and 3^rd Floors

Mission and Learning Outcomes:
RELIC aims to educate students of all backgrounds on philosophies, religions, spiritualities, faiths, and ideas while challenging students to put their ideas into action by attending lectures, programs community service events, and other intellectual endeavors. By engaging students in research, assessment, and continued learning on religious topics, this community serves as a cutting edge program with its unique model of learning and campus partnerships.

Brief Overview:
RELIC aims to enrich the lives of our residential students by providing them a forum to learn about religions of the world in an inclusive environment both inside and outside of the classroom. Students of all philosophical, religious, spiritual, faith and intellectual identities are invited to participate in the open learning environment created within the residence hall community.

Students will have the opportunity to learn, research, and study philosophies and religions of the world while eventually focusing on the religious topics that interest them the most. Students will begin as generalists and continue learning about one or more religions of their choice as determined in conjunction with residential education staff and faculty advisors. This learning community will connect students with faculty, staff, peers, and the greater Chapel Hill community.

RELIC creates a learning environment where students come together to discuss topics on religion, philosophy, spirituality, and faith. This program will provide students with a curriculum for both inside and outside of the classroom learning targeted at engaging students in the academic exploration of religious studies.

Participant Requirements:

Introductory Seminar:  Dialogue vs. Debate: Students will learn how to engage in effective discussions about religion, spirituality, faith, and philosophy.

• Attend initial Seminar on Dialogue verse Debate.
• Attend follow up event utilizing skills learned.

• Enroll in 1 Religious Studies/Philosophy/Sociology Course as specified by RELIC Advisory Council.  You must meet all specified course and grade requirements for this class.  You may petition for a class not listed to be should you feel it meets similar requirements
• Attend a minimum of 1 religiously, spiritually, philosophically affiliated campus program (we encourage this to be outside your current practices) and submit a 250 word response/reflection on this experience.
• Attend a minimum of 3 RELIC Community programs (coffee talks, lectures, reflection recitation, book clubs, etc)
  
• Attend a minimum of 2 places of worship from different religious and spiritual backgrounds for observation purposes and discuss them with RELIC community.
  
  • Attend a follow-up small group meeting to discuss these experiences (these will be offered monthly, you will only need to attend two)
• Attend 2 meetings with Community Director or Graduate Student Coordinator
  (One in the beginning of the semester, and one towards the end.)
• Maintain an online reflection journal/discussion
  
  • Once a week, post a 150 word original entry.
  • Once a week, post a 150 word response to someone else’s entry.

• Attend one Lecture/Speaker and complete a 500 word reflection/response to this experience
• Attend a minimum of 1 religiously, spiritually, philosophically affiliated campus programs and submit a 250 word response/reflection on this experience. 
• Attend a minimum of 3 RELIC Community programs (coffee talks, lectures, reflection recitation, book clubs, etc)
• Attend a minimum of 2 places of worship from different religious and spiritual backgrounds for observation purposes and discuss them with RELIC community.
• Attend a follow-up small group meeting to discuss these experiences (these will be offered monthly, you will only need to attend two)
  

• Participate in 1 book reading and attend one small group discussion based on book reading.
• Attend 1 meeting with Community Director or Graduate Student Coordinator.
• Maintain an online reflection journal/discussion
  
  • Once a week, post a 150 word original entry.
  • Once a week, post a 150 word response to someone else’s entry.

***Optional: In place of attending two RELIC Community programs, participants may plan and implement a program for the RELIC Community. This program must be approved by the Community Director or Learning Community Coordinator. 

Students will also have the opportunity to evaluate their peers’ performance within the community to ensure that a participant’s contribution is triangulated when assessing overall commitment to RELIC. This will provide the CD an opportunity to give feedback to each participant and hold each participant accountable to the community.

If students are not fulfilling the requirements for participating in RELIC, the CD will discuss these concerns with them, giving the student an opportunity to change their behaviors. If these conversations do not result in behavior change, the student will be placed on probation, and or asked to leave the community. There must be clear documentation of the student not meeting programmatic expectations or community standards within RELIC (policies, community contract, program requirements etc).

This program provides leadership opportunities for its participants through the following avenues: leading discussions, planning programs, committee work leading to the growth of RELIC, leadership development seminars, newsletter editing and submissions, and other community leadership involvement.

Admission Criteria:
All interested participants must…

• …Show genuine interest in learning about many of the world’s religions and philosophical perspectives.
• …Be willing to teach others about their own religion and philosophical perspectives when appropriate.
• …Be willing and able to accept others’ perspectives (even when opposite of their own) as they engage in meaningful academic dialogue on the topics of religion, philosophy, spirituality, and faith.
• …Come in with an open mind, and maintain an open mind throughout their tenured participation.
• …Complete the Housing application, and complete the extra essay questions noted for the RELIC living learning community.
• …Read through and sign a Community Contract that discusses appropriate behavior and general expectations for living within the RELIC community.
• …Participate in the RELIC selection process as an interviewee
• …Enroll in one approved Religious Studies Course for the fall semester.

Why you should consider the RELIC Living-Learning Community:
RELIC is a once in a lifetime opportunity where students from different backgrounds, perspectives, religions, and philosophies come together to learn about one another and about religions of the world through support from the Department of Religious Studies and the Department of Housing and Residential Education.

This program supports you as you learn about each religion, provides you with excellent resources to help you as you navigate this experience, and challenges you to experience things that you would not otherwise have the opportunity too.