UNC School of the Arts welcomed banned director after students alleged sex abuse, suit says

Most University of North Carolina School of the Arts staff accused of failing to protect students from sexual abuse over decades have died, retired or moved on.

But two 2019 graduates allege more recent negligence. A former opera director constantly sexually harassed them in class and at rehearsals, they say, and school leaders allowed him back on campus after saying he was banned.

The women say that opera director Nic Muni twisted scripts without warning to force their characters into sexual scenes, including violent rape attempts. He called fictional sexual predators “admirable” and “sexually liberating,” according to complaints before the state’s Industrial Commission.

The students complained twice to Chancellor Brian Cole, then music dean, they say. Unsatisfied with his response, they complained to the campus’ human resources department. Only then did the school notify them that Title IX had begun an investigation, they allege in the lawsuits.

With no warning, one of the protections they were promised – the campus banning Muni until an inquiry ended – was not enforced, they allege. A few months into the investigation, Muni asked UNCSA to let him return in March 2019 for an independent vocal competition that would be hosted on campus during spring break.

The women said that school leaders didn’t tell them Muni would return, according to their complaint. One said she emailed the Title IX investigator, who now runs the campus’ Title IX office, but received no response.

After the women graduated that May, the Title IX investigation found that Muni had “engaged in inappropriate behavior” and recommended that the school dismiss him, according to the lawsuit.

UNCSA spokeswoman Katherine Johnson said that Muni is no longer employed by the school. Citing state personnel privacy laws, she would not discuss specifics regarding his departure.

Sexualizing students

Muni was artistic director for all the operas in which the women were cast and gave them weekly lessons. He began sexualizing his female students just weeks into the school year, say the women, unnamed here because The Charlotte Observer and The News & Observer usually don’t name people alleging sexual abuse.

In September 2017, Muni deviated from the plot of “Susannah” and directed one of the women’s characters to instigate her own rape to make a scene “more interesting,” she said in her complaint. He also had her simulate an unscripted orgasm while presenting an aria, she said, making her so uncomfortable that she struggled to sing.

By February 2018, the sexualized directing had escalated. Both women were cast in the same role for “Impressions de Pelleas,” as a pregnant teenager who – in Muni’s interpretation – lusts after every male she encounters. He had two students act “childlike” and perform orgasms in the same scene, the women wrote in their complaints, and made “constant” references to child sexuality.

But the biggest change he made was to a scene in which the script calls for the character’s hair to be pulled. Muni directed male students to instead knock them to the ground, kick their legs apart and play out an attempted rape, all without warning the actresses, according to the complaints.

He told the women to caress their would-be rapists’ faces tenderly and told one of the women to “sell the rape more,” according to the complaints.

The next semester, the school performed “The Turn of the Screw.”

Again, the plaintiffs said Muni sexualized the script and its underage characters, praising a fictional child molester because he “loved all without discriminating based on age,” according to the complaint. When one of the women performed a young girl’s aria, he told her to sing while pinning her doll’s hands to the ground and kissing it.

In a September 2018 staging, Muni kissed one of the plaintiff’s hands while holding eye contact and groaning. Another student saw how upset she was and asked if she was alright, according to the complaint.

On Sept. 23, the woman rehearsed an erotic dream sequence. Muni had a male student hover over her and lift up her skirt, she said in the complaint, and floated his own hands over her chest to “demonstrate” an unbuttoning motion. Muni then lifted her skirt above her knee, touching her bare thigh.

Later that day, Muni demonstrated how to lean in for a stage kiss but brought his lips so close to her face that she had to dodge them, according to the complaint. Witnesses reached out to check on her when she rushed out after rehearsal.

The two women complained to Cole, then the dean of the music school, the next day. He assured them that the school would investigate their claims and protect them from any more of Muni’s abuse, they said in the complaint.

But the next day, Muni struck again. Ostensibly as an exercise, he ordered one of the plaintiffs to simulate masturbating in front of the class, according to her complaint.

Muni spent the rest of the class criticizing her for not going so far as to put her hand in her skirt and told students to get used to the demand if they wanted “to have careers in Europe.”

She went back to Cole to complain again. She alleged in court records that Cole’s response was simply to counsel her on mediation. She and her classmate decided to file formal complaints.

Cole was installed as chancellor of the school in October, several months after the plaintiffs filed their allegations against the school.

As mandated by federal law, Title IX offices handle students’ allegations of discrimination including sexual harassment. They’re tasked with both ensuring that students can learn in a safe environment and, when necessary, investigating those accused of wrongdoing.

Demanding investigation

The plaintiffs met with then Title IX coordinator James Lucas on Sept. 27, 2018 and told him that Muni’s presence in a room was enough to make them feel unsafe. Lucas promised that another faculty member would supervise Muni in future rehearsals, according to the lawsuit.

Over a month passed before the women received formal notice that an investigation had opened into their claims. Investigator Valerie Thelen, then based at the UNC system’s Title IX program, told them Muni would remain on administrative leave until she finished her investigation. In the meantime he was forbidden from entering campus or contacting students, the women said in their complaints.

The women said Thelen emailed them on Jan. 8, 2019 to say she was still interviewing witnesses and the investigation could take “a few more weeks.” Thelen became director of UNCSA’s campus office in February 2019, according to state employment records collected by the News & Observer.

It instead stretched into the summer, when Thelen sent the women – by then alumnae – her final report. According to the plaintiffs’ complaint, it confirmed that Muni had acted inappropriately and recommended that UNC discharge him.

Muni hasn’t been an “active faculty member” since Nov. 8, 2018, two days after the plaintiffs said they got formal notice of the investigation, said Johnson, the campus spokeswoman. State financial records, however, show he remained on payroll until 2020.

Muni has largely stepped out of the spotlight. His website hosts an apparently outdated resume that says he’s still at UNCSA, which the school says is untrue. Through his lawyer Andrew Miltenberg, Muni declined to comment beyond saying that any issues between him and the university “have been resolved.”

Broken promise?

While Thelen continued investigating, one of the women was shocked to learn that Muni was slated to judge at the Schmidt Vocal Competition – which UNCSA would host in early March. She told her classmate, who emailed Thelen but didn’t get a response, according to the complaint.

”Executive leadership” allowed that, fearing that a denial could jeopardize the inquiry into Muni’s behavior “in addition to other concerns,” Johnson said.

Schmidt had leased a school building from UNCSA and contracted with Muni independently, Johnson said. The plaintiffs weren’t participating in the competition, she said, and Muni was never alone with participants.

Muni’s name appeared on programs for the March 9 competition and his face peppered the competition’s social media feed.

The women allege that UNCSA violated its “timely warning policy” by failing to warn them ahead of Muni’s return. Johnson said its only policy of that name is a federal law requiring schools to alert the campus community of crimes that present an ongoing threat to them.

Many institutions are moving toward a practice of automatically placing accused faculty on administrative leave while investigating especially egregious Title IX complaints, said Hailyn Chen, a Title IX expert and lawyer at Munger, Tolles & Olson.

“Victims understandably fear retaliation, and it’s especially exacerbated in a situation where your future professional prospects are so dependent on recommendations from your teachers,” Chen said. “It can be really hard to give people assurances that nothing bad is going to happen to them.”

Nearly 60 alumni suing school

The women’s claims echo some of the allegations in the 56-plaintiff lawsuit that alumni, represented by a legal team including Gloria Allred, filed last year.

UNCSA has declined to discuss that lawsuit publicly, but Cole condemned the behavior in a series of statements and vowed to begin an external review of its current policies.

Unlike the opera students, many of the plaintiffs in that lawsuit were underage during their time at the school, and used the 2019 SAFE Child Act to sue during the state’s two-year window in which the statute of limitations was nullified.

“My clients were adults, but they were students,” said Leto Copeley, the attorney representing both women, adding,”students are just vulnerable no matter what their ages.”

“You have to worry very much about your reputation, and that just gives predators a lot of power in these situations,” she said.

While the larger suit is also filed in state court, all plaintiffs’ claims are pending in the Industrial Commission, a specialized venue where the state Attorney General defends state agencies against negligence claims.

Feb. 1 marked the deadline for the school to mediate with the plaintiffs accusing Muni, who filed their complaints in February 2021. A trial has been scheduled for early October, Copeley said.

For more on allegations of sexual abuse at UNC School of the Arts, read this timeline.

This story was originally published February 16, 2022 at 6:00 AM with the headline "UNC School of the Arts welcomed banned director after students alleged sex abuse, suit says."