UNC schools of data science and information science to merge, forming unnamed ‘School of AI’ – The Daily Tar Heel
Manning Hall is photographed on Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024.UNC schools of data science and information science to merge, forming unnamed ‘School of AI’
By Daneen Khan
Community Engagement Managing Editor
October 9
The UNC School of Data Science and Society and the School of Information and Library Science will be consolidating into a new school focused on artificial intelligence.
SILS and SDSS faculty were informed of the decision on Wednesday at two independent school meetings before it was announced publicly at 1:04 p.m. Thursday, via an email from Chancellor Lee Roberts and Interim Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Jim Dean to the UNC community.
According to a Q and A webpage launched by the Office of the Provost, a formal timeline for the consolidation is still to be determined, but the administration does not expect any changes before the end of the 2025-26 academic year.
“Both SILS and SDSS bring distinct strengths and areas of excellence to Carolina — technical expertise, humanistic inquiry and a deep understanding of the societal implications of emerging technologies,” Roberts and Dean wrote. “The new school will grow and amplify the impact of research and scholarship, foster interdisciplinary collaboration and expand opportunities to respond to the challenges of our time.”
New leadership structure
Stanley Ahalt, the current dean of SDSS, will serve as the inaugural dean of the new school. Jeffrey Bardzell, the current dean of SILS, “has accepted a secondary appointment as Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer and Vice Provost for AI,” according to the campus-wide email.
At the time of publication, Bardzell and Ahalt did not respond to The Daily Tar Heel’s requests for comment.
SILS opened in 1931 as the UNC School of Library Science before being renamed in 1987. The School offers an undergraduate major in Information Science, a minor in Information Systems, multiple dual bachelor’s-graduate degree programs and six graduate programs in both information and library sciences.
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