Associate dean resigns from SCiLL, citing 'lost faith' in Atkins’ leadership

Last Friday, Inger Brodey resigned from her position as the associate dean of the School of Civic Life and Leadership via an email to Jed Atkins, the dean and director of the school.

“As I see it, SCiLL has lost sight of its mission,” she wrote in the email, obtained by The Daily Tar Heel. 

Brodey joined the school in October 2023 as one of the nine inaugural faculty, and previously served as the chair of the school’s faculty search committee.

Her resignation marks the sixth departure of the original group who have all left the school following Atkins’ March appointment as dean and director. 

Since The DTH reported that four inaugural faculty members left the school in September, music professor Mark Katz, former chair of the SCiLL dean and director search committee, cut ties with the school.

In a November email to The Daily Tar Heel, Katz said he is “not affiliated with SCiLL in any way.”

“I have lost faith in the director’s leadership, and can no longer trust that the original mission [of SCiLL] will be honored,” Brodey said in an interview with The DTH. 

Atkins provided a statement through UNC Media Relations:

“I am grateful for Professor Brodey's service to the School of Civic Life and Leadership, and look forward to working with her in her continued capacity as affiliated faculty.”

In an email to The DTH, Brodey said she is still “adjunct” until June.

“There are no SCiLL ‘affiliates,'” she wrote. 

With Brodey's departure, only three of the inaugural group remain active within the school: Fabian Heitsch, Christian Lundberg and Molly Worthen. Lundberg is the only one actively teaching.

“[Brodey’s resignation] makes me wonder if and when the other three are going to de-camp,” Jay Smith, a UNC history professor, said.

Smith has been a vocal critic of SCiLL, and serves as the president of the North Carolina American Association of University Professors. 

Five months after Atkins' appointment as dean, the school made 11 new hires, all coming from outside UNC. 

"I came to UNC because I actually believe in SCiLL's advertised mission, as I believe the Provost and the Chancellor do. I support Inger completely," SCiLL's Associate Dean for Research and Strategy David Decosimo wrote in an email statement. 

Decosimo, who specializes in ethics, religion and politics, joined the school as an associate professor in August. Only him and Atkins are currently featured on the leadership page of the SCiLL website. 

In an email to The Daily Tar Heel, Brodey said the "improprieties, slander, vindictiveness and manipulation" surrounding the recent faculty search have convinced her "that SCiLL is currently the least civil department" she's encountered on campus. 

“I can see that there is no point in my trying to help build SCiLL any longer, and that decisions have been made, a direction has been set, over which I can have no input,” she said in an interview.

@aidan__lockhart

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