A Professor Walks Into a Storm

UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Lee Roberts stood at the front of Wilson Library’s Pleasant Room in late September, welcoming a damp group of faculty and students to the School of Civic Life and Leadership’s inaugural symposium. 

As the outer bands of Hurricane Helene lashed down rain outside, Roberts stood in front of a poster that read: “Is Democracy on the Ballot? Is Trump a threat to democracy? Is Harris? Are those questions misguided?”

Roberts told the crowd that the school—often called by the shorthand SCiLL—is the “most important initiative” UNC’s flagship campus has to offer. And he lavished praise on its recently hired dean and director, Jed Atkins. 

“What he’s done since coming on board in March is nothing short of extraordinary,” Roberts said.

SCiLL started offering classes this fall with a stated aim of combating polarization by fostering free speech and encouraging civil discourse. Launched at the behest of the UNC-CH Board of Trustees and the state legislature, it has been mired in controversy from the outset. Critics said it was a Republican attempt to force the university to hire more conservatives, especially after a trustee described the school as a “remedy” to the liberal lean of campus.

All the drama aside, Atkins seemed like a fairly traditional hire. He joined from Duke University, where he’d taught since 2009, chaired the classical studies department, and held leadership roles in two programs focused on civil discourse. He consulted on the initial proposal to create SCiLL, and Duke colleagues said he genuinely believed—and operated by—the civil discourse ideals he espoused.

But more than six months into his tenure, the storm around SCiLL is still raging—and Atkins’ vision for the program is becoming clearer. At least half of the current SCiLL faculty attended theological schools or have research interests involving Christianity, as does Atkins, and most are affiliated with or have been funded by conservative academic networks.

SCiLL’s critics are more convinced than ever that it’s a right-wing think tank in disguise.

“That’s the real purpose of an institution like this one,” said UNC-CH history professor Jay Smith. “It’s not to promote a better, nicer rhetoric or to teach students the tools they need to be functioning citizens. We already do plenty of that. It is instead to secure a spot on our campus, using whatever unconventional means are necessary, to serve as a launching pad for right-leaning arguments, politics, public policy, campus culture, and so on.”

Atkins said in a statement that when he started as dean, he worked with faculty to set out a vision and curriculum for the school. “From the input shared in those meetings, I developed the foundation for a more comprehensive working mission that guides all our decisions,” he said.

“Key parts of this mission include preparing students for the responsibilities of citizenship and civic leadership by fostering a free-speech culture and providing an education grounded in encouraging the human search for meaning, developing the capacities for civil discourse and wise decision-making, and understanding the history, institutions, and values of the American political tradition.”

The 20-Year Storm

To unravel the acrimony, you have to go back 20 years, because the fight over SCiLL started with the fight over the Program for Public Discourse, which started with the fight over “Renewing the Western Tradition,” which started with the fight over Studies in Western Civilization.

In 2004, UNC-CH proposed a new undergraduate program in Western civilizations and asked the conservative John William Pope Foundation—led by current UNC Board of Governors member Art Pope—to provide $10 million in funding. After a faculty uproar over both Pope’s involvement and the implication that UNC-CH didn’t already teach Western thought, the proposal was withdrawn in 2005.

Instead, the Pope Foundation backed a lecture series, “Renewing the Western Tradition,” that would celebrate the intellectual contributions of the West. But in 2009, after just three lectures, the president of another Pope-funded organization, the John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy, wrote an essay arguing that the series wasn’t honoring the donor’s intent because the speakers weren’t conservative enough.

Two years later, the Pope Center published a report arguing that conservatives need to maintain control over the money they give universities, precisely to avoid what happened in Chapel Hill. The center looked to Princeton professor Robert George for inspiration.

George, once described by The New York Times as “this country’s most influential conservative Christian thinker” and now seen as a patriarch of right-leaning academics, founded the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions in 2000 to study Western political thought. Although it is housed in Princeton’s politics department, it became a hub for conservatives by using independent donations to insulate itself from the rest of the university. The Pope Center suggested conservatives do the same at other universities.

When Chris Clemens, then a senior associate dean and now UNC-CH’s provost, began pushing for what became the Program for Public Discourse in 2019, his critics heard that long history in the background. A self-described “outspoken conservative,” Clemens had once been faculty adviser to Youth for Western Civilization, a right-wing student group with ties to white nationalists. (Clemens resigned as adviser, saying that he hadn’t read the group’s charter and that he only agreed to support “diversity of opinion” on campus.) Though Clemens described the new program of speaker series and fellowships as a non-ideological attempt to create better-informed citizens, he had been emailing with George as early as 2017 about launching a conservative center in Chapel Hill, even visiting George’s center to use it as a model.

Then came SCiLL, with similar goals and the addition of undergraduate classes and, eventually, a major and minor. Clemens, now the provost, championed it as well. The Program for Public Discourse has since been folded into the new school.

Out of the Fray

Atkins, meanwhile, never seemed likely to become embroiled in a political flashpoint.

“We talked about politics, because that’s what I was writing about, but it was ancient politics and political theory,” said Carl Young, a classics professor at the conservative and Christian Hillsdale College in Michigan and Atkins’ former Ph.D. student at Duke. 

Three of Atkins’ former faculty colleagues, who requested anonymity given the controversy around SCiLL, echoed the sentiment. (I also worked at Duke at the same time as Atkins.)

They sensed he was conservative, but it wasn’t because he entered the partisan fray. 

Atkins’ colleagues drew their conclusions from niche intellectual archetypes and cultural trends. They cited the fact Atkins studied Roman statesmen like Cicero, a subject claimed by many on the right, or that he spoke positively about Leo Strauss, a philosopher who influenced many conservatives. Or they noted that Atkins is a Christian whose kids were homeschooled.

Even during the 2016 election, Atkins, a registered independent, didn’t speak about contemporary politics with his colleagues. “I couldn’t tell you who Jed voted for in that election,” Young said.

One colleague who did talk politics with Atkins was Abdullah Antepli. An imam and Duke’s first Muslim chaplain who now teaches public policy, Antepli says he and Atkins immediately became close friends after working on the same cross-cultural engagement initiatives.

“Both of us have an incurable and irredeemable belief and commitment and conviction that words and ideas matter, and that it’s the only way to change the world,” Antepli said.

Antepli also described Atkins as conservative, but noted that he was struck by his ability to engage with those who don’t share his moral and political values. “He makes his convictions clear, but he does it in such an inclusive and pluralistic way, not in an exclusive way,” Antepli said.

Atkins was a popular lecturer. In classes like “The Good Life: Religion, Philosophy, and Life’s Ultimate Concerns,” he brought together his interests in Christian, Greek, and Roman political philosophy—he recently published a book on the Christian origins of tolerance—and inspired lively debates. The two programs he directed, the Civil Discourse Project and Transformative Ideas, extended that focus into lectures, retreats, and a residential community. 

In his day-to-day work as an administrator, that ability to build relationships across campus often came in one-on-one conversations. Former colleagues say Atkins was adept at learning what people cared about, what motivated them, long before votes were taken or decisions made. He was collaborative, a consensus builder. If the majority opposed his wishes, he let them go. If colleagues backed something he wasn’t interested in—including the kinds of progressive, identity-focused scholarship that conservatives have taken issue with—he still supported them with advice, funding, and whatever other means were at his disposal.

“Jed was a great chair and a tireless worker,” Duke classics professor Joshua Sosin wrote in an email to The Assembly. “I’m sure he’ll bring the same strengths to the new position.”

“I have nothing even close to negative to say” about his leadership, said Doug Jones, a theater professor who taught in Transformative Ideas. 

Jones and others also noted that Atkins’ relationship building allowed him to effectively navigate academic bureaucracy, finding money and staff resources. He arranged for Jones to fly in a director from New York to visit his class. He helped Young find external funding for the final year of his Ph.D. He supported junior scholars in particular and paid close attention to the well-being of graduate students during COVID, all without ideological favor, the former colleagues said.

In the end, few were surprised that Atkins left for a high-profile job—he was clearly on the fast-track to administration, they said. They were more surprised it was for a place as controversial as SCiLL.

Different Shades of Blue

For SCiLL’s critics, Atkins’ friendly disposition and civil discourse bonafides are beside the point. 

The questions started before Atkins did. The fact that he contributed to the proposal for SCiLL looked, to some, less like collaborative institution-building and more like favoritism, raising questions about whether his hiring had been predetermined. Clemens told Inside Higher Ed that wasn’t the case, as did SCiLL faculty member Mark Katz, who chaired the search committee.

When Atkins was hired in March, SCiLL already had nine faculty members, all UNC-CH professors who had accepted additional appointments with the new school. But when the fall semester started, five of them were no longer listed as faculty on its website, including Katz, though three have non-faculty affiliations with the school.

“It is important to note that the appointments were offered to all the inaugural SCiLL faculty who sought reappointment for positions at the school including adjuncts, research affiliates and curriculum fellows,” Atkins wrote in a statement. “These offers were updated to align with the mission and vision of the school. No one was asked to leave the school during this process; we are grateful for the work all of the faculty members have done to get the school to this point.”

Philosopher Matthew Kotzen confirmed that he is no longer affiliated with SCiLL, writing to The Assembly that “it was always going to depend on my own enthusiasm for continuing as well as on the preferences of the permanent Dean and Director.” He did not respond to subsequent requests.

Political scientist Jason Roberts wrote an email to The Assembly saying, “With the new leadership in place SCiLL has become more narrowly focused on religion and historical political thought. Given that change in focus I am no longer a good fit.”

“The school is not what I envisioned,” said Sarah Treul Roberts, another political scientist (Sarah and Jason are married). She was interim director and dean before Atkins was hired and a candidate for the permanent position. “I think this actually has to do with why I’m probably no longer strongly affiliated with the school.”

The major difference with Atkins’ version of SCiLL, said Treul Roberts, is that it is “a little bit more based on conservative thought” than she planned.

SCiLL continued hiring this year and now has 19 faculty on board. At least six of the new hires, plus one of the original faculty who stayed on, have studied Christian thinkers or the faith’s influence on politics and philosophy, as has Atkins. Others with strong backgrounds in civic discourse trained at divinity schools, including one new and one inaugural faculty member. 

All told, at least 10 of SCiLL’s 19 faculty members have research interests or training related to Christianity, according to bios released by UNC-CH, fellowship programs, and other descriptions of their research. (Another studies Confucianism, which is sometimes considered a religion.)

SCiLL doesn’t prominently mention Christianity or religion in its marketing materials. “The focus on hiring was not based on individuals’ research connections to religion,” Atkins wrote in a statement. “We focused our hiring on people who can think about the big ideas of human and civic flourishing, civil discourse and those who possess leadership capabilities.”

In interviews, Atkins has explained that he views the big questions about human meaning to be an essential part of improving civic life. “The civic crisis is downstream from the crisis of meaning,” he told the Wall Street Journal. 

But if the trustees wanted the school to bring more conservative connections to campus, they may have succeeded. Eleven SCiLL faculty, including Atkins, are currently affiliated with or have been funded by centers and institutes connected with conservative thinkers like George or primarily backed by conservative donors like Pope, billionaire Charles Koch, and others. 

The Jack Miller Center for Teaching America’s Founding Principles and History is particularly well represented. A Philadelphia-based center that was inspired by George’s at Princeton and started by partnering with the conservative Intercollegiate Studies Institute, it trains and supports scholars to create a nationwide network of centers like SCiLL. The center is nonpartisan, but more than half of its 2022 contributions came from the Ed Uihlein Family Foundation, led by billionaire conservative mega-donors Dick and Liz Uihlein. 

Atkins is a Jack Miller Center scholar and new SCiLL hire Rita Koganzon is on its academic advisory council. At least three of the other new hires previously received Miller Center funding as well, and the center listed SCiLL as one of the schools it helped support in its most recent annual report.

At least two of the new hires received funding from the John and Daria Barry Foundation, which has also given millions of dollars to other George endeavors. It has also funded Duke’s Civil Discourse Project, previously led by Atkins and John Rose, another new SCiLL hire.

George and conservative donors also crop up with SCiLL faculty in other civic discourse projects. Another new hire, associate dean David Decosimo, was a founding member of the Academic Freedom Alliance with George. The invite-only group, which includes members from across the political spectrum, features five other SCiLL faculty as members, including Atkins. The Barry Foundation is one of its donors, as well.

“Everything we thought would happen given the obvious playbook of how this has gone down at various campuses has occurred,” said history professor Erik Gellman.

“Here’s how it happened at Princeton, here’s how it happened at George Mason, here’s how it happened elsewhere,” he added. “They have a long-term plan.”

Atkins and UNC-CH did not respond to questions about SCiLL’s connections to the Jack Miller Center or other funders. In his statement, he touted the fact that SCiLL’s scholars have degrees from schools including Harvard, Yale, and Oxford.

Investments to Come

Most of the SCiLL faculty aren’t teaching yet. There are only three SCiLL classes offered this fall, with a total of 85 students. There will be six in the spring. But Atkins is making plans to draw in more students.

Atkins championed early outreach at Duke, encouraging his department to teach in first-year programs. He’s done the same at SCiLL, piloting a program at first-year orientation this year. Next year, Atkins told SCiLL faculty in an email, all first-years who attend orientation will participate in that program. 

The school is also prioritizing classes that meet two new general education requirements, Communication Beyond Carolina, part of a new curriculum that Clemens backed, and Foundations of American Democracy, which was created to preempt a Republican attempt to mandate certain curricular requirements. 

Being smart about marketing itself to young students isn’t problematic, said Julian Taylor, a student government member and founder of TransparUNCy, an activist group that held a teach-in about SCiLL earlier this month. But he believes SCiLL is getting special considerations for political reasons.

“They’re being given these privileges over other schools that have been on campus for a long time,” he said.

The state budget provided $2 million per year for SCiLL for this year and next. A 2023 budget request, first reported by Inside Higher Ed, showed that its budget was expected to be $12.7 million by the 2026–27 academic year. The school asked for $5 million a year and noted it was “working to identify a source of funding” for the rest.

The bulk of the cost is faculty salaries, most of which are tenure-track. The budget request also included up to $500,000 a year for a residential program, similar to the one Atkins ran at Duke. (The SCiLL offices are in Whitehead Hall, a former dorm.)

“By living and learning alongside their classmates, students will build the ‘rapport,’ trust, and intellectual friendships necessary to have constructive disagreements in the classroom,” the budget request says.

Caught in the Rain

One irony of the intense distrust surrounding SCiLL, a program claiming to lead through polarized conflict, is that Atkins and the university haven’t said much about the controversies. Some of the most substantive interviews Atkins has done have been with university outlets and friendly columnists. (In one local radio interview, the host discussed attending a Miller Center seminar himself.)

A university official originally declined The Assembly’s interview requests on his behalf, then said Atkins agreed to an interview. The day before it was scheduled to take place, the official said Atkins would like an off-the-record conversation first. At the beginning of the scheduled interview, Atkins requested the whole thing be off the record, eventually sending a statement via university officials.

He didn’t attend the SCiLL’s inaugural symposium in September thanks to a scheduling conflict. Associate Dean Decosimo acted in his stead. 

Guest speakers of varying political persuasions had been invited to present their views. On the first panel, equal time was allotted to each. But political storms weren’t the biggest threat that day. Helene was.

When a tornado warning rang out halfway through the first panel, Decosimo led the audience into the Wilson Library basement. “I was prepared for many eventualities, but not this one,” he told the crowd.

The event was just restarting when a second warning sounded. SCiLL faculty debated whether the tornado threat was remote enough to ignore, but Decosimo eventually led the dwindling audience into a largely abandoned basement room. 

“For those of you who stuck around, thank you for your commitment to civic life and the public good,” he said as he dragged chairs in for a makeshift set up.

SCiLL moderators had tracked the time remaining for the interrupted speaker down to the minute. As the debate resumed after the long delay, the clock counted down once again.

Additional reporting by Erin Gretzinger.

This story has been updated to remove a reference to David Decosimo as a theology professor, a title he held prior to joining UNC-CH. Additionally, guest speakers on the first panel at SCiLL’s event had equal time, not all speakers.