Former Dean Nichol Returning to Law School

Posted on March 25, 2008

Former UNC law school Dean Gene Nichol, whose contentious two-and-a-half year tenure as president of the College of William & Mary ended in February, will return to the UNC faculty this summer.

Nichol will teach constitutional law, federal jurisdiction and election law at UNC. His wife, Glenn George ’75, will teach civil procedure and employment and labor law. “All of those are areas where we have needs,” said Dean Jack Boger ’74 (JD).

Boger said that Nichol and George are going through the normal hiring process, which includes interviews, presentations and reviews of their scholarship. He expects their positions to be finalized by July 1.

Nichol was a professor and the dean at Carolina from 1999 to 2005. His presidency at William & Mary was marked by controversy. In fall 2006, he changed the policy for displaying a two-foot-tall brass cross in Wren Chapel, the oldest building on the public university’s campus. Nichol announced that the cross would be removed during secular events to make the building more welcoming to people of all faiths. The decision drew the ire of some students, alumni and conservative commentators.

Nichol encountered more criticism when he later declined, on First Amendment grounds, to ban on-campus performances of the Sex Workers’ Art Show, which some found offensive and inappropriate. He announced his resignation in February after learning that his three-year contract would not be renewed.

Boger said he had no concerns about Nichol’s dust-ups at William & Mary. The controversy, he said, “was a result of taking a principled stand on First Amendment issues. That’s one of the things professors do. He is not coming back with his eyes on an administrative position.”

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Related coverage is available online:

• Former Law School Dean Nichol Resigns From William & Mary
  News report from February 2008
• Nichol Leaving Law School to Head William & Mary
  News report from March 2005
• With No Warning, No Debate
  While dean of the law school, Gene Nichol, whose specialty is constitutional law, took a keen interest in one of the most stirring controversies in Carolina’s history – the Speaker Ban Law. As he prepared to leave UNC to be president of the College of William & Mary, Nichol focused on the role of former Chancellor William B. Aycock ’37 (MA, ’48 JD).
  From the Carolina Alumni Review, July/August 2005, available online to Carolina Alumni members.
• Tracking the Attorney General: An essay by Gene R. Nichol, dean, UNC School of Law.
  From the Carolina Alumni Review, March/April 2002, available online to Carolina Alumni members.
• Colorado Law Professor New Dean of UNC School
  From the Carolina Alumni Review, July/August 1999, available online to Carolina Alumni members.

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