UNC-Chapel Hill's top academic official stepping down after three years in the role
UNC-Chapel Hill's top academic official is stepping down from his leadership position after three years in the role, Chancellor Lee Roberts announced Thursday, marking one of the most notable changes in the university's administration since Roberts took office last year.
Chris Clemens has served as the university's provost and chief academic officer since February 2022. A member of the UNC faculty since 1998, Clemens has also served as chair of the physics and astronomy department and in two separate senior associate dean roles in his more than 25 years at the university.
He will return to his role as a distinguished professor of physics and astronomy after concluding his duties as provost on May 16.
'An astrophysicist to the core, I know Chris is excited to return to our faculty,' Roberts wrote in announcing the change. 'He is an invaluable adviser and friend to me, and I look forward to his continued excellence in teaching, research and leadership.'
Clemens encountered his share of controversy in his role — beginning from the very moment he was hired.
The UNC Board of Trustees approved Clemens to be provost under the recommendation of former Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz, who is now the president of Michigan State University. The process used to search for a provost and ultimately approve Clemens' hiring raised several questions from media and others.
Then-Faculty Chair Mimi Chapman criticized the process for a lack of transparency and alleged that university trustees and UNC System leaders had put 'significant pressure' on Guskiewicz 'to make a particular choice.'
Then, when the trustees voted to approve Clemens' hiring, their procedure raised additional questions about whether the vote had violated state law on open meetings, as reported by The News & Observer at the time. Those questions forced the board to vote on the matter again in a later meeting 'to immediately end any further attempts to challenge the validity' of Clemens' hiring, The N&O reported.
Shortly after taking office as provost, Clemens described his role in a university interview as being the 'advocate-in-chief' for the university's faculty.
Among the many positions he has held at the university, Clemens has perhaps become most known for his roles in helping to develop the Program for Public Discourse and the School of Civic Life and Leadership — separate, but similar, university efforts that are generally intended to foster civil dialogue and debate on campus, but that have been criticized for their perceived conservative leanings and influences.
Clemens was involved with the development of the Program for Public Discourse as early as 2017, when he wrote to Robert George, a prominent conservative law professor at Princeton University, seeking George's input on the program that was then in its infancy. In his emails to George, Clemens described himself as 'among the most outspoken conservative members' of the UNC faculty, noting that he had been a sponsor of the College Republicans and the Carolina Review, a conservative student publication.
Clemens served as the interim faculty director during the program's inaugural year, from 2019 to 2020. Years later, as provost, he developed a budget proposal for the School of Civic Life and Leadership, which sparked controversy when the university's Board of Trustees directed administrators to 'accelerate' their development of the school in a 2023 resolution.
The stated purpose of the school, which began offering classes last fall, is 'to encourage thoughtful engagement with democracy and civility through a variety of disciplines.' But Dave Boliek, who served as the Board of Trustees chair when the school was introduced and now is the state auditor, said in a Fox News interview that the school would 'remedy' the university's shortage of 'right-of-center views.'
In recent months, as the school has begun operating in earnest, it has been the source of more controversy.
Multiple news reports, including in the Daily Tar Heel and Inside Higher Ed, have detailed a disconnect between the school's leadership and its faculty, as well as a now-'narrowed' focus of courses compared to the school's broad mission. Most of the school's inaugural faculty have resigned over such issues, the Daily Tar Heel reported.
In January, Inside Higher Ed reported, Clemens ordered the school's dean, Jed Atkins, to halt ongoing searches for faculty, citing financial limitations. But Clemens quickly reversed course after Roberts 'committed sufficient funds,' the outlet reported.
Thursday's announcement of Clemens' departure as provost marks the latest in a string of recent changes in Roberts' administration.
The university's top lawyer, Charles Marshall, left the university in January to return to the private sector. Last week, Roberts announced that former state Sen. Paul Newton, the Republican majority leader who had resigned from the Senate just days earlier, would be the university's next general counsel and vice chancellor, beginning April 21.
Also last week, Roberts announced that he was eliminating the role of vice chancellor for human resources, most recently held by Becci Menghini, as part of larger 'organizational changes' to the university's HR and Equal Opportunity and Compliance offices.
Roberts announced at a January Board of Trustees meeting that Vice Chancellor for Communications Kamrhan Farwell would be departing the university after nearly three years in the role. Farwell remains on staff as university officials continue to search for her replacement, with additional search committee meetings scheduled in the coming weeks.
Previously, George Battle, vice chancellor for institutional integrity and risk management, left the university last summer. As part of that change, Roberts announced the division would be reorganized into other campus departments.
Roberts was named the university's 13th chancellor last summer after serving in the role on an interim basis for several months. A career finance executive and former member of the UNC System Board of Governors, he resigned from that board in order to become chancellor.
Jim Dean, who previously served as UNC's provost from 2013 to 2017 before serving as president of the University of New Hampshire from 2018 to 2024, will return to Chapel Hill on May 17 to serve as interim provost.
'Few others can bring the wisdom and deep expertise from over 40 years both in higher education and at Carolina that he does,' Roberts wrote of Dean.
The university will conduct a national search to fill the role.
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