UNC-Chapel Hill picks campus professor to lead its academic strategy as new provost
UNC-Chapel Hill trustees selected astronomy professor Christopher Clemens on Thursday as the new executive vice chancellor and provost for the university, starting Feb. 1. He will be the university’s second in command behind the chancellor.
Clemens, the Jaroslav Folda Distinguished Professor in the UNC-CH physics and astronomy department, most recently served as the director of Carolina’s Institute for Convergent Science and the Chancellor’s Eminent Professor of Convergent Science. In his two decades at Carolina, Clemens has also been chair of physics and astronomy, senior associate dean for natural sciences, and senior associate dean for research and innovation in the College of Arts and Sciences.
“I am honored to be able to serve my community at a pivotal time for the university,” Clemens said in a statement. “The challenges and disruptions we have suffered are substantial, but I believe they also offer opportunities to reflect on our core mission to students, to promote the public good, and to put our research and scholarship to work in innovative ways that serve the people of North Carolina.”
The UNC-CH Board of Trustees voted to approve Clemens per the recommendation of Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz at a special board meeting Thursday morning. But the university didn’t announce the hire until Thursday evening.
“The chancellor needs to have a provost and a team around him that he trusts and a provost that he believes will help move the university in the right direction,” Board Chairman Dave Boliek said in an interview.
Boliek said Guskiewicz made it clear to the board that Clemens should join his leadership team as the next provost at UNC-CH.
In the meeting, which was held mostly in closed session, trustees voted on three action items related to personnel that were not publicly disclosed at the time.
Each trustee voted yes on the items, with the exception of Student Body President Lamar Richards. He voted no on the first item, which was the provost hire, and abstained from voting on the other two items, which were administrative salary changes.
Richards could not be reached for comment Thursday.
Commitment to research, teaching and free inquiry
As provost, Clemens will lead the university’s academic and strategic planning.
He served as the first senior associate dean for research and innovation in the College of Arts & Sciences until July. That position was created in 2019 to “drive strategic planning and provide guidance across the College’s academic divisions and research programs, fostering new models of innovation, new initiatives and new collaborations,” according to the university.
While he was a dean at the college, Clemens was featured in a UNC-CH podcast series where he discussed his research and “his self-identified conservatism on a college campus, where liberalism is the dominant language.”
Clemens also serves on the advisory committee for the UNC Program for Public Discourse and was the interim faculty director in its inaugural year. The academic program sparked controversy over its alleged conservative political bent as it was being developed and funded in 2019, The Daily Tar Heel reported. Last spring, the program received an $8 million donation for a new speaker series to promote constructive public debates about current issues, including racial justice.
“Chris’ deep understanding of the links between rigorous interdisciplinary research, excellent teaching and the value of free inquiry makes him the right person to take on this role at this crucial time in Carolina’s history,” Guskiewicz said in a statement.
He recognized Clemens’ academic collaboration and “commitment to the kind of interdisciplinary work” that’s part of the university’s strategic plan.
Clemens earned a bachelor’s degree in astrophysics from the University of Oklahoma and a doctorate in astronomy from the University of Texas at Austin. He was then a NASA Hubble Fellow at Iowa State University and a Sherman Fairchild Prize Postdoctoral Fellow at Caltech before joining UNC-CH’s faculty in 1998.
Clemens replaces Bob Blouin, who announced his resignation in May after four years leading the university’s academic enterprise, particularly throughout the coronavirus pandemic. Blouin planned to serve as provost until his successor was hired and will now resume his work as a professor in the Eshelman School of Pharmacy.
Blouin is one of several top UNC-CH administrators who’ve left or are leaving their positions this year. Five deans, who all report directly to the provost, are also part of the exodus of UNC-CH leaders that came as UNC-CH was thrust into the national spotlight over issues of political influence, race and academic freedom.
Pressure on provost decision
While the provost search was kept out of the public eye, which is typical, campus administrators, professors and students have been part of the search process.
A designated search committee sorts through nominations, interviews candidates and makes a few official recommendations to the chancellor. The chancellor then chooses a finalist from that slate of candidates and presents that candidate and their credentials to the UNC-CH Board of Trustees for approval.
As this search was coming to an end, UNC-CH Faculty Chair Mimi Chapman wrote an op-ed for The Daily Tar Heel asserting that Guskiewicz was “under significant pressure to make a particular choice.”
“Our trustees and the UNC System are dictating his choices to the point that he really has none to make,” Chapman wrote.
Trustees, donors and UNC System officials interfering in searches, particularly for the university’s chief academic officer, undermines the chancellor’s authority and ruins relationships between the administration and faculty, staff and students, she said.
But Boliek, when asked about accusations of pressure on this decision, said, “Members of the Board of Trustees give the chancellor advice on a multitude of topics.”
Boliek said Guskiewicz has told him that he takes that advice and uses it like he would advice from trusted advisors to the university.
“I think that’s fair,” Boliek said. “That’s his job and that’s our job.”
‘We need to support whoever the chancellor presents to us’
Chapman, who interviewed and met with multiple provost candidates, said her qualms are not about a particular person, but the process. She said she’s willing to support and work with whomever Guskiewicz chooses as provost, as long as it was “his choice, freely made.”
Trustee Gene Davis said any pressure on the chancellor to pick a certain candidate is unfortunate and unnecessary because Guskiewicz is UNC-CH’s CEO and this should be his hire.
“We need to support whoever the chancellor presents to us,” Davis said, adding that he and at least five other trustees told the chancellor they would vote for his pick.
This provost hire is a big step for GUskiewicz in building out his leadership team, which he wasn’t able to do during the pandemic, Davis said.
More changes to UNC-CH leadership
With the new provost, Guskiewicz also took steps to strategically align the full administrative team by hiring Christi Hurt as his new chief of staff and shifting Amy Locklear Hertel to a redefined role as executive vice provost.
Hurt currently serves as the senior prevention strategy officer in student affairs, a position created last spring to lead the university’s sexual assault and gender-based violence prevention, intervention and support efforts.
She previously served as chief of staff and interim vice chancellor for student affairs at UNC-CH, an adjunct professor in the school of government, director of the Carolina Women’s Center and the interim Title IX coordinator. Hurt is a three-time graduate of UNC-CH.
Hertel, who was the chancellor’s chief of staff and senior adviser to the chancellor for academic affairs for four years, will take over as the new executive vice provost. She earned degrees in social work and law and is a faculty member in the school of social work. Hertel was hired as former Chancellor Carol Folt’s chief of staff and previously served as the director of the American Indian Center since 2012. She is a member of the Lumbee and Coharie tribes of North Carolina.
The trustees also approved salary changes in conjunction with the provost hire and the two additional staff that require approval from the UNC System Board of Governors.
This story was originally published December 9, 2021 at 6:35 PM with the headline "UNC-Chapel Hill picks campus professor to lead its academic strategy as new provost."
