Matt Hartman

Durham

Higher Education Reporter at The Assembly

higher ed reporter for @TheAssemblyNC. other bylines, @newrepublic @ringer @jacobin. live crabs stay humble. [email protected]

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Articles

The University of Austin Courted UNC-Chapel Hill's Jed Atkins

1 week ago | theassemblync.com | Matt Hartman

Jed Atkins’tenure as dean and director of the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Civic Life and Leadershipbegan a little over a year ago, and another school is already trying to lure him away. The Assembly obtained an email that the University of Austin, the “anti-woke” private school that welcomed its first class of students last year, sent earlier this spring to faculty, staff, and students listing Atkins as one of two finalists to become the school’s second president.
One Critic of Race-Based Admissions Says Colleges Can Still Improve Diversity

2 weeks ago | theassemblync.com | Matt Hartman

Richard Kahlenberg has been enthralled with the multiracial, working-class coalitions envisioned by Robert F. Kennedy and civil rights activist Bayard Rustin since he was an undergraduate student at Harvard University. Decades later, Kahlenberg says those ideals led him to an unexpected alliance with conservatives in their fight to end race-based affirmative action.
Guilford College Considers Formal Step Toward Possible Faculty Layoffs

3 weeks ago | theassemblync.com | Matt Hartman

Guilford College’s Board of Trustees and administrators in recent weeks have weighed declaring financial exigency, a step that would allow the college to lay off tenured faculty, according to memos obtained by The Assembly.
UNC-Chapel Hill Has Delayed Tenure Votes in Most Departments This Spring

1 month ago | theassemblync.com | Erin Gretzinger |Matt Hartman

Some UNC-Chapel Hill faculty say they are concerned about a recent Board of Trustees decisionâ€”or, rather, non-decisionâ€”on faculty tenure and promotion cases. At the boardâ€™s meeting in March, trustees delayed taking up personnel actions until the May meeting. Then during a closed-session meeting on May 22, the trustees approved 18 new tenure cases, promotions, and appointments.
Guilford College Debates How ‘Quakerly’ It Should Be

1 month ago | theassemblync.com | Matt Hartman

Guilford College had a mysterious money problem. Each year, the board of trustees would pass a budget, and each year revenue would fall significantly short of projections. “We’re like, ‘What is going on?’” said Jean Parvin Bordewich, who joined the board in 2023.
UNC Research Data Is Disappearing. This Team Is Trying To Save It

1 month ago | theassemblync.com | Matt Hartman

In the early days of the Trump administration, when the White House was “flooding the zone” with immigration actions, ending diversity programs, and yanking security clearances, a quieter change started to worry scientists around the country. A decades-long survey about behavioral risk factors, normally posted on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website, went offline. So did the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Demographic and Health Surveys and the CDC’s .
Mecklenburg County Democrats Chair Fights For Another Term

2 months ago | theassemblync.com | Matt Hartman

Most elections for county political party chair only matter to the most committed of party activists. Few make the news. But then, most county party chairs didn’t get glowing profiles in Politicoand The New York Times. Drew Kromer did. When he was elected chair of the Mecklenburg County Democratic Party in April 2023, Kromer was a 26-year-old politics nerd with ambition.
Before He Quit, UNC-CH’s Provost Was Involved in Messy Fight at School of Civic Life

2 months ago | theassemblync.com | Matt Hartman

Before Chris Clemens unexpectedly announced his resignation as UNC-Chapel Hill’s provost on April 3, he was embroiled in a contentious faculty battle over hiring at the university’s new School of Civic Life and Leadership (SCiLL), The Assembly has learned. Several professors have left the school over the past year, with some complaining SCiLL’s leadership inappropriately sidelined them as it hired more faculty.
A Chapel Hill Lab Faces New Threats Five Years After Covid-19

2 months ago | indyweek.com | Matt Hartman

This story originally published online at The Assembly. The Baric Lab doesn’t look like much from the outside. Certainly not like a central node in a once-in-a-generation global event. At one of his laboratories, tucked away in a Gillings School of Public Health building on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus, the only sign is taped to the window near a notice about the trash collection schedule.
A Chapel Hill Lab Faces New Threats Five Years After Covid-19

Mar 27, 2025 | theassemblync.com | Matt Hartman

The Baric Lab doesn’t look like much from the outside. Certainly not like a central node in a once-in-a-generation global event. At one of his laboratories, tucked away in a Gillings School of Public Health building on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus, the only sign is taped to the window near a notice about the trash collection schedule. A nameplate nearby is blank, minus a bumper sticker for the unincorporated community of Little Switzerland, a postcard, and a sticker of a bat just below.