250 years after Thomas Jefferson put quill to parchment and declared a new nation into being, Americans still grapple with a question he considered fundamental: are we producing citizens capable of governing themselves?
Jefferson believed that acquiring liberty without the knowledge to preserve it was a futile effort. He asserted that people “should be rendered by liberal education worthy to receive, and able to guard the sacred deposit of the rights and liberties of their fellow citizens.” To equip citizens with the knowledge and aptitudes necessary to defend the principles of liberty, Jefferson founded the University of Virginia.
Jefferson founded UVA as an enduring institution meant to instill in citizens the civic virtue required for self-governance. It was focused on the foundational texts of political and philosophical thought, academic freedom, and the formation of virtuous citizens capable of sustaining the young republic. He considered the university’s creation among the three achievements most worthy of inscription on his tombstone.
Jefferson knew what was at stake. A self-governing republic cannot sustain itself. It requires citizens who actively seek to understand and value it, and who possess the courage to defend it through participation, debate, and the daily exercise of civic virtue. Yet these skills seem to be lost on many Americans. Surveys consistently show that the majority of college graduates cannot answer basic questions about America’s history, government, or its core principles and values.
The problem is not a lack of intelligence. It stems from universities losing sight of their mission. and treating civic education as an afterthought. My experience as a recent Florida State University graduate offers a different perspective—one that gives hope for a resurgence of civic education at universities across the nation, albeit from an unlikely source.
My experience as a recent Florida State University graduate offers a different perspective—one that gives hope for a resurgence of civic education at universities across the nation, albeit from an unlikely source.
Ironically, this enrichment came not from my political science degree—where most would expect—but from my minor. The Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) minor at FSU is an interdisciplinary program with roots at Oxford, designed to produce graduates capable of thinking critically about public life. I had already planned to minor in economics, so when I saw the opportunity to join such a new and unique program at Florida State, I knew I had to pursue it. This interdisciplinary approach produces something a standard political science curriculum rarely does on its own: a citizen capable of rigorous, unconventional thought.
The PPE program challenged students to do more than memorize and regurgitate facts about government or policy; it trained us in principled reasoning and civic responsibility. Studying the history of political thought exposed me to some of the foundational intellectual debates in politics and public life. I explored Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau’s ideas about human nature in the absence of civil society; Burke and Paine on the origins of the political right and left; and the
American democratic experiment through the lenses of the Founding Fathers and Alexis de Tocqueville.
The PPE program also introduced me to public choice theory, which reshaped my understanding of politics. Public choice is fundamentally “politics without romance.” It analyzes leaders not as benevolent actors focused on the public good but as actors influenced primarily by human nature, which is rationally self-interested.
For me, PPE was the foundation of my civic education. But curriculum alone does not cultivate a robust civic culture. Culture requires more, especially public debate, where ideas are tested in real time by people who have spent their careers thinking about them. Public discourse promotes civic virtue only when there is a commitment to mutual understanding and tolerance for opposing viewpoints. That is what FSU’s recently established Institute of Governance and Civics (IGC) provides.
The Institute fosters civic education, constitutional literacy, and open intellectual discussions on campus. Its efforts encompass research, curriculum development, and public outreach. What left a lasting impression on me was its speaker series. This initiative brings distinguished professors and public thinkers to campus to discuss important civic issues.
CLS students study constitutional thought, free speech, political philosophy, economic analysis, and foundational texts on liberty and governance.
The speakers come from diverse disciplines and intellectual backgrounds, united by a commitment to the open exchange of ideas. Past speakers include economists Glen Lowry, who discussed self-censorship, and Peter Boettke, who addressed the socialist calculation debate; constitutional scholar Jeffrey Rosen, who examined the role of reading in fostering virtue among the Founding Fathers; and historians Andrew O’Shaughnessy and Allen Guelzo, who discussed the lives and accomplishments of the pivotal American statesmen Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln. Attending these events gave me firsthand experience of what civic discourse is supposed to look like: rigorous, civil, and open to debate.
To advance its mission of civic learning, the IGC has created a Civics and Liberty Studies (CLS) degree. The degree, which is scheduled to launch in fall 2026, is built around four key pillars of liberty: constitutional, economic, educational, and “conscience liberty.”
CLS students study constitutional thought, free speech, political philosophy, economic analysis, and foundational texts on liberty and governance. The liberal arts tradition is paired with empirical studies in statistics, survey research, public opinion, and public policy, forming a single, rigorous course of study. This structure can be replicated at any university with existing departments in those fields and serves as a model for other universities seeking to cultivate extensive civic knowledge among prospective students. I graduated with a degree in political science. If I were an incoming freshman at FSU today, I would, without hesitation, choose the CLS degree to pair with the PPE minor. That combination would have provided, from the first semester, what I spent four years trying to acquire: comprehensive civic formation through the liberal arts and empirical foundation that CLS offers, blended with the interdisciplinary analytical skills developed in PPE. The new degree also signals that the university views civics as deserving of a full program of study. Civic virtue is downstream of civic education, and education requires institutional commitment.
Civic virtue is downstream of civic education, and education requires institutional commitment.
Nearly two and a half centuries after Jefferson staked the survival of America’s self-governing republic on an educated citizenry, we are struggling to keep the ship afloat. Colleges and universities have overwhelmingly failed to provide adequate citizenship education to young minds. In the classrooms of the PPE minor, at events hosted by the IGC, and in the syllabi for the new CLS degree, I saw firsthand that FSU remains committed to building the institutions Jefferson regarded as essential to preserving the ideals enshrined in the Declaration of Independence.
Austin Packham graduated from Florida State University in 2025 and is pursuing a master’s in digital journalism and design at the University of South Florida.