The Quad: Inside the Fight Over Civics

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Civics Lesson

Shortly before he resigned as UNC-Chapel Hill provost, Chris Clemens ceded hiring authority over the School of Civic Life and Leadership to the school’s dean, Jed Atkins. It was a surrender in a long-running fight over what the school should be and who it should hire.

Now, we can provide some new details about how things reached that point.

There were disbanded advisory committees, and a search committee that split into opposing camps. There was an ignored HR recommendation, lots of allegations of nepotism, and a slew of new faculty with similar academic backgrounds. And there is a bill in the state legislature that would give the SCiLL dean even more authority.

How to foster debate on college campuses has become a top concern nationwide, and some conservatives want to prioritize “viewpoint diversity” in faculty hiring. That includes a longtime friend of Atkins’ who advises conservative megadonor Paul Singer and once advocated for “affirmative action for conservatives.”

At SCiLL, the divide is between those who think the school should be a reform effort led by UNC-CH faculty and centered on the skills of civil discourse, and those who think it should be a program centered on American civics and Western political philosophy kept largely separate from the rest of the university.

— Matt Hartman

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Thanks for reading The Quad, a higher education newsletter written by Matt Hartman and edited by Emily Stephenson. Reach us with tips or ideas at highered@theassemblync.com.

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Meet Korie

Korie Dean has been the higher education reporter at The News & Observer, where she was also part of the state government and politics team. She grew up in Efland and graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill.

At The N&O, she wrote the Dean’s List newsletter—a title I was deeply jealous of as we started The Quad—and, I learned when we were on a panel together earlier this year, once reviewed all 40 milkshake flavors available at Cook Out, which I am also deeply jealous of. (Her top five were hot fudge, banana pudding, strawberry cheesecake, pineapple, and mocha. We will be fighting about the lowly placing she gave to Oreo mint.) (Emily says peanut butter fudge should be the clear winner.)

— Matt Hartman

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Redneck Revolt Redux

If you blinked last week—or went on vacation—you might have missed another academic freedom fight at UNC-CH.

Dwayne Dixon, an Asian and Middle Eastern studies professor and former member of the antifascist “community defense” group Redneck Revolt, was suspended as the university investigated whether or not he posed a threat to students.

Dixon’s activism has made news before. He brought an assault rifle to a rumored white supremacist march in 2017, and he was accused of assaulting an alt-right journalist in 2018, though the case was dismissed. 

Redneck Revolt disbanded in 2019, and Dixon hasn’t been in the news much since. But after an affiliated group at Georgetown University posted fliers mocking Charlie Kirk last week, Fox News wrote about Dixon. 

“What I saw on Sunday,” Chancellor Lee Roberts told a faculty meeting on Friday, “was a video of a professor who was talking about the need for confrontation while loading a semi-automatic weapon, and then firing that weapon.”

The university placed Dixon on leave while it performed a risk assessment. Faculty spoke strongly against the move at the meeting, pointing out that the video was from 2019, right after the infamous Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, and Dixon had been investigated—and cleared—at the time without being suspended.

“Why, after eight years, did you make this decision,” Dixon’s department chair, Li-ling Hsiao, asked Roberts at the meeting. “You made this decision without reaching out to people like me who have daily interactions with Professor Dixon.”
Our INDY Week colleague Eva Flow has more.

— Matt Hartman

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Assigned Reading

Scheduled Freedom: Spirit rocks are back at UNC Wilmington after a conflict at one went viral and was shortly followed by false rumors of an armed person on campus. The two rocks have traditionally been free speech zones that students paint over repeatedly to advertise events, espouse political positions, and so on. Now, there’s a reservation system to keep things in check.

Financial Health: The Duke Chronicle provided a very helpful recap of a Duke University School of Medicine webinar last week. School leaders gave a detailed overview of their financial picture, which the paper called “cautious but optimistic.” Among other details, they’ve appealed 20 canceled grants, winning 20 percent of the cases, and are still concerned about proposed caps on indirect cost reimbursements. The school also revealed that one-third of their students’ borrowing has already surpassed the new caps on federal student loans. (Former intern and Chronicle managing editor Lucas Lin wrote for us about those loan limits here.)

The New Standards: The Commission for Public Higher Education, the new accreditor being launched by the UNC System and other public university systems, just released the accreditation standards it will use to review institutions. Additional guidance on the kind of evidence they will look for will be announced later.

Smarty Pants: UNC-Chapel Hill’s Nabarun “Nab” Dasgupta was awarded a 2025 MacArthur Fellowship, AKA a “genius grant.” The $800,000 stipend “recognizes Dasgupta’s work as an epidemiologist and harm reduction advocate who combines scientific studies with community engagement to reduce deaths and other harms from drug use and overdose,” UNC-CH said.

Let us know what’s on your radar at highered@theassemblync.com.

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