Inaugural faculty announced for UNC School of Civic Life. Who’s on it?
Less than nine months after the contentious UNC-Chapel Hill School of Civic Life and Leadership was introduced by the university’s Board of Trustees, the inaugural faculty and an interim dean for the school have been announced.
The nine-professor group includes faculty from across the College of Arts & Sciences, where the school will be housed, with their home teaching departments ranging from philosophy to music to physics and more.
Sarah Treul Roberts, a professor in the university’s political science department and the faculty director of the Program for Public Discourse, will serve as interim dean and director of the school. The school has been described as an opportunity to make the Program for Public Discourse — which was criticized in its early stages for alleged conservative leanings, influences and funding sources — more robust. Jim White, dean of the college, told the university Faculty Council Friday that the program will become part of the new school.
The other faculty in the school, as announced by White in a message to the college Friday, will be:
- Inger Brodey, an associate professor of English and comparative literature
- Kurt Gray, a professor of psychology and neuroscience
- Fabian Heitsch, a professor of physics and astronomy
- Mark Katz, a distinguished professor of music
- Matthew Kotzen, a professor of philosophy
- Christian Lundberg, an associate professor of communication
- Jason Roberts, a professor of political science
- Molly Worthen, an associate professor of history
The group, made up of all tenured professors, is tasked with defining a vision for the school, developing the school’s curriculum and beginning a search for a permanent dean of the school, among other tasks. They will hold half-time appointments in the civic life school, while continuing to hold the other half of their appointment in their home departments.
The announcement of the school’s first faculty marks the latest development in the fast-paced development of the school since January, when trustees introduced it through a resolution.
The school has been criticized for the lack of faculty involvement in its proposal by the trustees and for being touted, notably by the then-Board of Trustees chair, as a way to “remedy” a shortage of “right-of center views” at the university and among faculty.
Faculty involvement has varied
Faculty, including then-faculty chair Mimi Chapman, have said they were not informed about the school ahead of the trustees’ announcement in January, which is contrary to traditional shared governance structures at the university, in which faculty direct the curriculum and propose new academic units.
Faculty had more input into the development of the school this summer, when the university’s provost assembled a committee to advise him on the topic. Roberts, the interim dean, and Kotzen were among the faculty on that committee.
“I have said since the beginning that creating this new school will be a faculty-driven process,” White said in his message to the college, “and these initial faculty will be the ones blazing that trail.”
Trustee Perrin Jones said at a meeting last month that he was “a little concerned about some hardening of lines” regarding the school and its development, encouraging faculty who may be skeptical about the school or its purpose “to get involved.”
“If someone is a proponent of [the school], that doesn’t mean that they’re anti-faculty,” Jones said. “And if someone is on the faculty and they’re asking questions about [the school] and how it’s developed, that doesn’t mean that they’re against the school.”
At the Faculty Council meeting Friday afternoon, White said university faculty outside of the College of Arts & Sciences may eventually be able to teach in the school through adjunct appointments.
The state budget, which allocated $2 million to the school in each of the next two fiscal years, directed the university to name a permanent dean by the end of the year and hire between 10 and 20 faculty members from outside the university to teach in the school. The faculty would be required to have tenure or be eligible to receive it.
White, addressing a question from a Faculty Council representative who said she was concerned about legislative and political “influence” over the school, said the concern is “valid.”
“I hope we are given the time and space needed to show what we can do at this great university,” White said. “Because I think in the end it’s going to be our work, our accomplishments that people look back and say, ‘OK, that’s fine. I’m not going to try to micromanage this anymore.”
At a Board of Trustees meeting in May, UNC Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz said the school could begin offering courses next spring. White said the school could eventually have a physical space and presence on campus, saying a team had looked at “several different places” and that Whitehead Hall, on McCauley Street, could be an initial location.
This story was originally published October 9, 2023 at 1:34 PM with the headline "Inaugural faculty announced for UNC School of Civic Life. Who’s on it?."
