UNC could offer School of Civic Life courses beginning next spring, chancellor says

The same week the North Carolina legislature appeared to show “strong” financial support for the proposed School of Civic Life and Leadership at UNC-Chapel Hill, the university’s chancellor said the first faculty member had been hired for the school, which could begin offering courses next spring.

Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz provided the updates on the school during his remarks at a university Board of Trustees meeting Thursday, saying the university is “making significant progress” in establishing the school.

The meeting followed the release of a budget proposal Monday from the state Senate, which included a $2 million allocation to the civic life school in each of the next two fiscal years. The state House included the same proposal in its own budget, released in March.

Both chambers including the school in their budget proposals is a “clear signal from the legislature that there was strong support” for the school, UNC director of state affairs Amy McConkey said in a legislative update she provided to trustees on Wednesday.

Board chair David Boliek told The News & Observer on Wednesday that he appreciated the legislature’s support of the school. Boliek in January introduced the resolution requesting university leadership “accelerate” the development of the school, which has been a source of controversy and contention at the university ever since.

First faculty member hired

Since the trustees approved the resolution on the school in January, the School of Civic Life has been described as a way to make the university’s Program for Public Discourse, which was previously criticized for conservative influence, more robust.

The Senate budget proposal released this week says state funding provided to the school would allow for “an expansion of the curricular work of the existing” program.

Guskiewicz said during Thursday’s meeting that personnel policies for fixed-term faculty in the university’s Program for Public Discourse were approved in mid-May, and the university has also hired Rory Hanlon, a teaching fellow at the University of Chicago, as the program’s first faculty member.

Hanlon’s website says he will start as a teaching assistant professor in the program and the university’s philosophy department in July.

Hanlon holds his doctoral degree from the University of Chicago and his bachelor’s degree from St. John’s College in Santa Fe, New Mexico, per his website. His research focuses on ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, “especially Aristotle’s conceptions of mind, soul, and life, and their place within the Greek and Roman philosophical tradition.”

Guskiewicz said a faculty group has been assembled to report on “key components for the school” to him and provost Chris Clemens “later this summer.” The report will be presented to the university’s Faculty Council and the Board of Trustees “at some point early this fall,” Guskiewicz said.

Faculty have previously criticized the process by which the trustees proposed the school, saying they were not consulted ahead of time. That goes against typical shared governance structures at the university, faculty have said, because faculty — not trustees —typically propose new academic programs.

Courses could begin next spring

Guskiewicz said development of the school will continue throughout the fall semester, and “hopefully some courses will be taught as early as” the spring 2024 semester. Guskiewicz said the university would “ideally” have a permanent director for the school identified by then, as well.

If the timeline Guskiewicz outlined pans out, it would mark a relatively quick development of the school, compared to other schools established at the university. For example, the university’s new School of Data Science and Society launched last fall, more than two years after the Board of Trustees endorsed a formal feasibility plan to establish it.

“I think we were making great progress, and I want to thank those who have been working hard to move this issue forward,” Guskiewicz said.

Thursday’s board meeting also included a presentation from Benjamin Storey, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a professor at Furman University, who largely focused on the benefits that the School of Civic Life could provide on campus.

Storey mentioned in his presentation that other universities have proposed similar schools and programs to the School of Civic Life, saying that the university should move quick to hire faculty. Last week, for example, the University of Texas system governing board approved a School of Civic Leadership to be established at the University of Texas at Austin.

“The competition to hire the best people to do this work is already becoming intense,” Storey said. “UNC, the nation’s first and greatest state university, can and should attract the best.”