Leadership Electives

As a reminder, the McIntire Leadership Minor requires students to take two elective courses (3 credits each for a total of 6 credits). First, students must complete up to 3 credit hours specifically focused on enhancing their persuasion and influence knowledge, skills, and abilities. Second, students must complete an additional 3 credit hours of an “open” leadership course. A pre-approved list of electives is located on the McIntire Leadership Minor Website (https://www.commerce.virginia.edu/minors/leadership). Standing agreements with the instructors of record for these pre-approved electives are in place and minor students can take these courses (as space allows) without approval through this site.

The purpose of this site is for students to apply for a potential elective course, not currently listed on the minor website, to be considered for inclusion for credit toward the student's minor persuasion and influence or open course elective requirement(s).

Submitting Courses for Consideration

Through this site, students will submit courses to be considered for exception approval to fulfill their minor elective requirement(s). To submit a course, Students must be prepared to provide the following information: 1) Course number, 2) Course Name, 3) Course Syllabus, 4) Number of Credits assigned for the Course, 5) Institution (i.e., UVA or Abroad University as applicable), 5) explanation of why the course fits the minor requirements and 6) identify which leadership minor elective requirement the exception request is for (i.e., persuasion and influence or open elective requirement).

Course Approval

The Director of the Leadership Minor is the approving official for all elective exception requests. At a minimum, a course being considered for exception approval need to meet the following criteria: 1) The course must be directly related to leadership. If the exception request is for the persuasion and influence elective, the course must put significant emphasis on the development of the student’s persuasion and influence skills through written and/or oral communication. 2) The course must provide a grade to the student. No courses offered as only "for credit" will be approved. Graded courses that were provided CR/NC options during the COVID-19 pandemic will be considered. 3) The course must not overlap significantly with one of the three required courses for the minor (see the minor website). The electives are meant to expand the students leadership knowledge beyond the content of the minor’s required courses.