UNC-Chapel Hill Investigates the School of Civic Life and Leadership

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is bringing in outside counsel to investigate its controversial School of Civic Life and Leadership after months of faculty turmoil.

Chancellor Lee Roberts said at a faculty council meeting on September 5 that the university is conducting the probe into the school, also called SCiLL. Paul Newton, the university’s general counsel, confirmed on Wednesday that a review is underway. 

“Early this summer, Jed Atkins, Dean of the School of Civic Life and Leadership, asked the university to conduct a thorough process and policy review,” Newton said in a statement to The Assembly. “The university agreed that an independent review by outside counsel was necessary, and the investigation is ongoing.”

The university did not provide more details about what is being investigated or the timeline.

Roberts revealed that the review is happening after historian Harry Watson asked him to comment on a Chronicle of Higher Education story about the recent firing of the school’s associate dean, David Decosimo. (Decosimo remains on faculty but is no longer in an administrative role.)

The story is just the latest in a series of controversies surrounding personnel matters at the school.

“This kind of coverage is obviously troubling,” Roberts said. “It’s not what anybody would want.”

In the same faculty council meeting, Newton promised that his office would “cut through the noise” to find out what’s happening at the school, which began offering classes last fall. The school says its goal is to foster free speech and encourage civil discourse. Critics say its founding was a Republican attempt to force the university to hire more conservatives.

“Our faculty and I are grateful that the university agreed to undertake a careful review of all relevant matters,” Atkins said in a statement to The Assembly on Wednesday. 

Nine SCiLL faculty members left the school in the past year, in addition to Decosimo losing his administrative position. It now has 20 faculty.

Decosimo announced his firing on X last week. While he reiterated his support for the movement to launch civics programs like SCiLL, he said that reform “must be built on merit, courage, & principle, not nepotism, ideology, & secret handshakes.” 

“Demanding loyalty oaths & unquestioning docility while selecting for personal connections & membership in certain networks is even worse,” Decosimo added.

Decosimo’s claims echo those of Inger Brodey, who also served as an associate dean in SCiLL before resigning in March and also criticizing Atkins. She told The Daily Tar Heel that the school had “lost sight of its mission” and was marked by “improprieties, slander, vindictiveness and manipulation.”

Both Decosimo and Brodey declined to comment for this article.

Atkins faced similar criticism from faculty last year over his approach to hiring and the direction he was taking the school. 

Atkins’ defenders have argued the opposite. Dustin Sebell, a SCiLL professor hired last year, said in a March email that a hiring search this year only became contentious because then-Provost Chris Clemens tried to cancel it “in retaliation for the Dean’s refusal to commit to offering one of his friends a joint appointment outside of normal rules and procedures.”

Clemens unexpectedly resigned from his position a few weeks later. He also declined to comment for this article.

“The university has already publicly stated: ‘SCiLL’s faculty searches honored all university rules and procedures. Applicants were advanced on the basis of merit and fit with the advertised positions,’” Sebell wrote in a statement to The Assembly. “It remains to be seen whether anyone at UNC violated university rules and procedures in the course of trying to stop the searches.”

At last week’s faculty council meeting, Newton downplayed the turnover.

“The reality is, you’re going to expect some turbulence with a start-up like this, whether it’s private sector, public sector—particularly one that started with some controversy,” he said.

“The school is bigger than some turbulence at this point in time,” he added. “I think we’ll be able to move beyond it.”

Roberts emphasized that the school is still a strategic priority. “We’re going to do our best to fulfill the original vision and mission of the School of Civic Life and Leadership,” he said.