Noted law professor and anti-poverty advocate Gene Nichol to speak Sept. 10 at Appalachian

Posted Aug. 31, 2015 at 9:42 a.m.

BOONE — Gene Nichol, the noted law professor and anti-poverty advocate, will speak at the Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts at Appalachian State University Thursday, Sept. 10, at 8 p.m. His talk is titled “Poverty, Politics and Academic Freedom in North Carolina.”

Nichol’s visit has been organized by the university’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). This event is free and open to the public.

Nichol is the Boyd Tinsley Distinguished Professor of Law at UNC Chapel Hill. From 2008-15, he ran UNC’s Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity, which was founded in 2004 to “advocate for proposals, policies and services to mitigate poverty in North Carolina.”

In 2015, the UNC Board of Governors voted to shut down three university-based centers, including the Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity. Nichol was outspoken in his criticism of the decision affecting the poverty center. In February, he wrote an op-ed published in the Raleigh News & Observer about the board’s actions
(http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/op-ed/article11384150.html).

Alongside his work as a professor, Nichol is a prominent public intellectual, who regularly contributes to Raleigh News & Observer and The Progressive Populist. He has also written for The Nation and the Washington Post for over a dozen years. He is, moreover, a major legal scholar and the author of “Federal Courts” (third edition, West, 2015) and a contributor to “Where We Stand: Voices of Southern Dissent” (NewSouth, 2008). His articles have appeared in the law reviews of Harvard, Yale, Chicago, Michigan, Pennsylvania, California, Duke and Virginia.

From 2005-08, Nichol was president of the College of William and Mary. Previously, he was dean of the law school at UNC from 1999 to 2005 and at the University of Colorado from 1988-95. From 1985-88, he was director of the William & Mary Bill of Rights Institute.

Nichol’s talk will be streamed at http://streaming.appstate.edu/nichol.

For more information, contact AAUP Chapter President Dr. Michael C. Behrent at behrentmc@appstate.edu or 828-719-5759.

About Appalachian State University

As a premier public institution, Appalachian State University prepares students to lead purposeful lives. App State is one of 17 campuses in the University of North Carolina System, with a national reputation for innovative teaching and opening access to a high-quality, affordable education for all. The university enrolls more than 21,000 students, has a low student-to-faculty ratio and offers more than 150 undergraduate and 80 graduate majors at its Boone and Hickory campuses and through App State Online. Learn more at https://www.appstate.edu.