The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill commissioned a seven-month independent review of its new School of Civic Life and Leadership. But the university has refused to release the full $1.2 million report, citing attorney-client privilege and privacy concerns among those who spoke to the outside reviewers.
Now WRAL and other local media outlets, including The Daily Tar Heel, filed a lawsuit against the university Friday, seeking the public release of the 400-page report.
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Several media outlets have requested copies of the full report or certain portions, including the executive summary, and have been denied by the university. The outlets argue in the lawsuit that the document is a public record and therefore should be made available in full under the state’s public records laws.
The report, which started in the summer of 2025, was produced by law firm K&L Gates and paid for by the university. The lawsuit states that no one at the “university has offered a reasonable or persuasive explanation or justification for the University’s refusal to release the report, in whole or part.”
In addition to WRAL and The Daily Tar Heel, the News & Observer, The Assembly, N.C. Newsline and Carolina Public Press are the plaintiffs. The university, UNC Chancellor Lee Roberts and Vice Chancellor and General Counsel Paul Newton are named as defendants.
"As a public university we take seriously our responsibility to consistently and completely respond to public records requests in good faith, in a timely manner, and in accordance with the law," Newton said in a statement Friday. "The public records act contains several thoughtful exceptions that protect the private personnel information of our faculty, students and administration. The law also acknowledges the attorney client and attorney work product privileges. We look forward to further discussing these important issues within the bounds of the lawsuit."
University trustees approved the creation of the school in 2023 to allow for “the freedom of expression and ideas and exchange of ideas,” Dave Boliek, then the board’s chairman, told Fox News at the time. Boliek later said that “no one should feel they have to bury their ideological point of view, particularly at a great institution like UNC-Chapel Hill.” The school began offering classes in 2024.
According to the lawsuit, the school’s critics have said that the school’s “very establishment, the process by which it was established, and many of the actions taken by its appointed leader, Dean Jed Atkins, have violated UNC academic policies, traditions, and procedures related to curriculum, hiring, faculty tenure and status, faculty governance and funding,” according to the lawsuit.
SCiLL has added more than 20 faculty members and has taught nearly 1,000 students this academic year. The university said, after the report, that the school will remain open. K&L Gates met with dozens of people and reviewed hundreds of thousands of documents as part of its review.
Roberts and others “have vigorously defended SCiLL,” the lawsuit says. Atkins and the school’s trustees issued statements of support after the report was completed. Michael J. Gerhardt, the chair-elect of the UNC faculty, assisted the reviewers.
"Launching a new school at a leading public research university is an ambitious undertaking under any circumstances,” Roberts said in a statement. “Doing so amid scrutiny and intense public attention requires resilience, focus, and resolve.”
The lawsuit states that because the report “was made at the request of and on behalf of the University, was paid for by the University out of public funds, and was received by the University” is a public record as defined by state law.
David Lambeth III, UNC’s chief governance officer, said the report “constitutes trial preparation materials,” which are exempt, according to the lawsuit.
Lambeth wrote in an email that “the investigation was, and is, in response to numerous claims regarding SCiLL, some of which could still form the basis of future legal proceedings.”
