The Quad: A Professor Walks Into a Storm

Can an idealist successfully run an inherently politicized program?

There are lots of questions raised by UNC-Chapel Hill’s School of Civic Life and Leadership, but that one stands out now that the school’s new leader, Jed Atkins, is starting to implement his vision.

The school is infamous enough since its controversial start that most people who subscribe to a newsletter about higher ed in North Carolina are probably asking other questions: Who should control the university’s curriculum, the faculty or oversight bodies like the trustees or the General Assembly? Is the movement for “viewpoint diversity” just cover for a conservative political project? Do colleges need to change how they teach students to debate and disagree? 

Our newest in-depth story dives into one of the state’s clearest examples of the political fights shaping higher ed. And we found a disconnect between the nearly universal praise Atkins’ former colleagues had for him and the unrelenting acrimony over the SCiLL.

More than six months into Atkins’ tenure, that storm is still raging. At least half of its faculty attended theological schools or have research interests involving Christianity, and most have connections to conservative academic networks. 

Atkins is a true believer in the civil discourse ideals the school espouses, but SCiLL’s critics are more convinced than ever that it’s a right-wing think tank in disguise.

–Matt Hartman

A Professor Walks Into a Storm

Jed Atkins, the dean of UNC-Chapel Hill’s controversial new School of Civic Life and Leadership, is a well-respected professor who believes in the power of civil discourse. His early decisions have only fueled criticism about the school’s conservative roots.

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This Went Over Their Heads

A few hundred students and community members gathered on Davidson College’s historic quad last Friday for what you might call an elevated style of debate.

On either side of the lawn sit red brick buildings named after the college’s first two student societies, which used to have passionate debates on campus. During presidential election years in recent decades, students stand on the opposing buildings’ balconies to debate the hottest issues.

“It’s a wonderful spotlight and a moment for Davidson where we can feature the kind of democratic engagement that we’ve been focused on all semester, and, in fact, we’re focused on all the time as a liberal arts college,” President Doug Hicks said in an interview.

On Friday, the first debate since 2016 (2020’s was canceled due to the pandemic), student debaters tackled the economy, immigration, abortion, and the passage of Senate Bill 49, which is North Carolina’s equivalent of what Republicans call a “Parental Bill of Rights” and Democrats call the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. 

This year’s debate had a new element. The college’s Deliberative Citizenship Initiative—which encourages dialogue about difficult topics on campus—facilitated conversations at tables scattered throughout the quad for around 20 minutes after each debate topic. Trained student facilitators led the discussions with a focus on finding common ground.

While Davidson has made concerted efforts to bridge the gap between debate and dialogue, plenty of challenges remain. A Davidson professor recounted last year in an essay for The Assembly the college’s rocky road to creating a freedom of expression statement.

“There still is a lot of hesitation to engage because of concerns about blowback,” said Graham Bullock, an associate professor of political science who is the faculty director of the Deliberative Citizenship Initiative. “We’re trying to push back against that and create more of a deliberative culture and less of a cancel culture.”

The debate turnout was an encouraging sign to Bullock that there’s a hunger on campus for that kind of culture. Students organizers and debaters who spoke with The Assembly agreed.

“We think that demonstrating by leading by example … can sort of fight back against that [cancel culture] and destigmatize the sort of fear,” said Stephen Walker, the president of Davidson College Republicans.

Students, said Aidan Marks, a sophomore who debated for the Davidson College Democrats, want to “actually try to find, at the end of the day, some kind of common ground and mutual understanding.”

–Erin Gretzinger

Colleges’ ability to foster civil discourse is a topic I covered a lot last year. How have those challenges unfolded on your campus? And how are you working to find solutions? Let me know your thoughts at erin@theassemblync.com.

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A Scene From “The Greatest Homecoming on Earth”

Send us photos of your favorite campus traditions at highered@theassemblync.com.

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Quieting the HR Noise

Bureaucratic HR updates aren’t normally described as spine-tingling, but here’s one that will make anyone with higher ed administration experience shiver: by next year, the UNC System will eliminate 22,000 vacant positions that have been open for more than a year.

At the same time, President Peter Hans explained at last week’s Board of Governors meeting, the system will reduce its 2,395 distinct salary ranges to 18.

The changes aim to bring clarity and accountability. “It’s an impediment to understanding how the institution works,” Michael Vollmer, the system’s chief operating officer, told The Assembly.

Vollmer said that about half of the 22,000 jobs are permanent positions, and he estimates that about 20 percent of the permanent jobs—or roughly 2,200 positions—have some kind of funding budgeted for them, whether state appropriations, university revenue sources like concession sales, or something else. But because of the system’s decentralized nature, Vollmer says it’s hard to get an accurate picture of what the jobs are or how much money is set aside for them.

“Where we are now, there’s just a lot of noise in the system that makes it difficult to understand the things that are valuable,” he said.

Vollmer emphasized that eliminating positions will not free up money for other uses. In the case of unfilled positions with funding attached, schools have generally redirected that money elsewhere, although system leaders don’t know where. The goal is to understand how money is being used and provide a clearer picture of the system’s true staffing needs.

“We haven’t heard a lot of feedback other than this being a good government thing to do,” Vollmer said.

–Matt Hartman

Did you just get heart palpitations thinking about the paperwork involved? Maybe some questions about what this will mean for your department? Get in touch: highered@theassemblync.com. We’d love to hear what this will mean around the state.

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