UNC & Local News

he UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees was honored by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni last week at a ceremony in Washington D.C. The board was presented the Jerry L. Martin Prize for Excellence in College Trusteeship for its “unwavering commitment to academic excellence, academic integrity, and freedom of thought and inquiry.”

Click the link below to read the full article:

https://www.carolinajournal.com/unc-chapel-hill-recognized-for-challenging-the-groupthink-and-status-quo/#:~:text=thought%20and%20inquiry.%E2%80%9D-,The%20Jerry%20L.,%2C%E2%80%9D%20according%20to%20ACTA%27s%20website

Tensions were high over the war between Israel and Hamas as dueling demonstrations led to shouting and in some cases, police having to intervene in an emotionally-charged scene.

Click below to read the full article:
https://www.wral.com/story/sides-clash-as-unc-chapel-hill-protest-between-pro-palestine-pro-israel-groups-turns-heated/21093642/

Highlights

77% of students say shouting down a speaker to prevent them from speaking on campus is at least rarely acceptable.
51% of students say they have self-censored on campus at least once or twice a month.
65% of students say they are worried about damaging their reputation because someone misunderstands something they have said or done.
For every one conservative student, there are roughly 4.1 liberal students.

Click the link below to read the full article.

https://rankings.thefire.org/rank/school/university-of-north-carolina-at-chapel-hill

Zealous university faculty and administrators have become increasingly intolerant of anyone who disagrees with their “progressive” beliefs. Sometimes, they’re unguarded enough to admit that they want to “cull the herd” to eliminate dissidents, as in this case.

Click the link below to read the full article:

https://www.jamesgmartin.center/2023/08/faculty-free-speech-loses-in-the-fourth-circuit/

In July of 2020, UNC-Chapel Hill’s chancellor sent an email to the university’s leadership cabinets requesting responses to three questions regarding “structural racism.” Through public records requests, the Martin Center obtained a copy of the many responses submitted over the following days by Chapel Hill’s academic and administrative units. Our previous article on this subject introduced the chancellor’s DEI questionnaire and examined some of the more extreme proposals supplied by respondents. Below, we look in greater detail at the “solutions” proposed by Chapel Hill’s various divisions and schools.

Click the link below to read full article:

https://www.jamesgmartin.center/2023/08/chapel-hills-dei-obsession-was-mandated-at-the-top-part-ii/

This session, the North Carolina legislature has taken aim at Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) trainings on UNC-System campuses. On March 14th, Senate Majority Staff Director Derrick Welch sent a letter to the UNC System requesting a list of all employee trainings on that topic from 2023 and the previous three years.

Since DEI in higher ed is a matter of continuing interest for the Martin Center, we promptly sent public-records requests to the UNC System and its 16 constituent institutions, requesting all responses sent to Welch and the legislature.

Click Link Below to Read Full Article:

https://www.jamesgmartin.center/2023/07/how-extensive-is-dei-training-in-the-unc-system/

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In the past several years, the Martin Center has exposed and reported on numerous diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives at UNC-Chapel Hill. Since late 2021, we have uncovered DEI plans that pose significant threats to academic freedom and free speech in at least three schools.

Click the link below to read the full article:

https://www.jamesgmartin.center/2023/07/chapel-hills-dei-obsession-was-mandated-at-the-top/

How many hundreds, thousands or hundreds of thousands of American citizens have been “canceled,” fired or not re-hired in the wake of Black Lives Matter (BLM) and far-left attacks on free speech?

If it is only one, it is one too many. Compelled speech as well as censored speech defeats the whole purpose of free and open inquiry on college campuses.

To read the full article click the link below:

https://nsjonline.com/article/2023/06/hill-duke-university-free-speech-and-cancel-culture/

In January 2023, UNC-Chapel Hill launched its “DEI Strategic Plan” for the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS). The DEI Strategic Plan is an offshoot of Chief Diversity Officer Leah Cox’s “Build Our Community Together” initiative, itself part of a 2020 program entitled “Carolina Next.”

That initiative outlines plans to align admissions, hiring, and retention policies with administrators’ diversity, equity, and inclusion goals. Objectives include “​​prioritiz[ing] diversity, equity, and inclusion in teaching, research and service, and in hiring, evaluation, retention and promotion of under-represented faculty and staff.” This is in addition to “explor[ing] innovative approaches to admissions” focused on DEI.

Click Below To Read Full Article:

https://www.jamesgmartin.center/2023/06/chapel-hills-latest-dei-push/

The roots of cancel culture first took hold on college campuses, where outspoken pockets of angry students began shouting down teachers and classmates who dared to voice opposing viewpoints. Hundreds of cases of retaliation have since been reported.

But today, the news isn’t all bad. Change is taking place on the very college and university campuses where cancel culture first bloomed. North Carolina’s very own UNC Chapel Hill should be lauded for stepping into the fray in support of free speech.

Click here to read the full article:

https://www.carolinajournal.com/opinion/cancel-culture-is-destroying-free-speech-unc-is-fighting-back/

The University of North Carolina (UNC) medical school is disbanding its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) task force without implementing its recommendations, just months after banning DEI statements from admission, hiring, promotion and tenure.

Click the link below to read the full article:

https://www.foxnews.com/media/university-of-north-carolina-med-school-renounces-its-own-dei-framework

An historic battle is waging over the future of higher education in the U.S. And the stakes couldn’t be higher. The presenting issues are critical social justice theory and freedom of speech. Back in the early 1980s, Jesse Jackson and Stanford University student protestors raised a few eyebrows when they chanted, “Hey, hey, ho, ho, Western Civ has got to go,” though many folks just shrugged it off as juvenile exuberance. Well, 40 years later, no one’s shrugging it off. Jackson’s catchy little chant is now the relentless drumbeat of mainstream academia.

Click the link below to read the full article:

https://www.jamesgmartin.center/2023/05/undoing-diversity-equity-and-inclusion-requires-alumni-effort/

The Prohibit Compelled Speech/Higher Ed Act, House Bill 607, sits in the Senate Rules Committee this week, after passing the House earlier this month. It seeks to extend and codify protections from compelled speech for students and college applicants in North Carolina.

Click the link below to read the full article:

https://www.carolinajournal.com/compelled-speech-would-be-banned-on-nc-college-campuses-in-house-bill/

In a victory for academic freedom, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill announced its decision to not implement recommendations made by the School of Medicine’s Task Force to Integrate Social Justice into the Curriculum that would condition tenure and promotion on faculty commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Click link below to read full article:

https://www.thefire.org/news/victory-unc-chapel-hill-rejects-task-force-recommendation-shows-why-its-green-light-school

Free-speech protections are on the rise in the UNC System. Late last year, UNC-Chapel Hill’s Board of Trustees and Faculty Council adopted free-speech resolutions, with the latter signing on to the speech-friendly Chicago Principles, as well. More recently, two UNC-System institutions have joined the flagship in publicly committing to protecting First Amendment rights on campus.

To read full article click link below:

https://www.jamesgmartin.center/2023/05/speech-protections-are-spreading-across-the-unc-system/

The Martin Center has often reported on the damage being done in colleges and universities under the guise of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). Now, another organization, Color Us United (CUU), is doing the same for the UNC School of Medicine (UNCSM).

Click Link Below to Read Full Article:

https://www.jamesgmartin.center/2023/02/a-new-anti-dei-petition-for-unc-medical-school/

For much of the last century, Democrats controlled North Carolina.

Since 2010, however, voters bestowed that power on Republicans, who have appointed conservatives like me to govern the UNC system.

Democrats have made political hay from bashing our leadership. Look beyond the bad-mouthing, though, and you’ll see what’s motivating them: They’re not in charge any more, and it’s killing them.

Click Link Below to Read Full Article:

https://nsjonline.com/article/2023/04/kotis-the-hypocrisy-of-the-coalition-for-carolina/

Click Below to Read the Meeting Notes:

https://bot.unc.edu/meeting-reports/

The scariest professor I had in college at UNC was Dr. Daniels.

He taught French 40 ― existential literature. I hated it.

Everyone else loved him. He had a reputation for being lenient in grading ― if a student went to his office to chat with him 3-4 times during the semester, they were pretty much guaranteed to get an A.

Click Below to Read the Full Article:

https://nsjonline.com/article/2023/03/hill-college-students-are-crippled-by-faculty-patronizing-them/

CHAPEL HILL — At a March 22 meeting of the University of North Carolina Board of Trustees (UNC BOT), a resolution was approved that supports a recent policy change to curb “compelled speech.”

UNC BOT member and Strategic Initiatives Committee Chair Perrin Jones introduced and read the resolution supporting the amendment of UNC Policy Section 300.5.1. The approved policy revision in that section restricts “vague or ideologically motivated statement policies of any kind across UNC campuses” in admissions, employment and professional advancement.

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https://nsjonline.com/article/2023/03/unc-board-of-trustees-approves-resolution-in-support-of-policy-curbing-compelled-speech/

Three cheers for UNC Chapel Hill.

The public institution — paid for in large part by taxpayer dollars — has become a national leader of the anti-woke backlash in higher education. This development is as surprising as it is welcome, since many public colleges and universities are doubling down on political indoctrination and ideological discrimination.

Click here to read the full article:

https://nsjonline.com/article/2023/03/smith-unc-chapel-hill-is-emerging-as-a-national-free-speech-leader/

The University of North Carolina (UNC) moved against encroaching woke culture and voted to ban diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) statements and politically preferential hiring.

UNC voted to ban DEI statements and compelled speech from admission, hiring, promotion and tenure at its Board of Governors meeting Thursday.

Click Below to Read the Full Article:

https://www.foxnews.com/media/university-north-carolina-moves-ban-diversity-equity-inclusion-statements-anti-woke-backlash

Where have all the adults gone?

That is one of the questions I keep wondering about wherever I look in America or the wider West these days.

We have politicians who behave like schoolchildren, teachers who live in fear of their students, and bosses and CEOs who are terrorized by their most junior employees.

When did all the adults leave the room?

Click Below to Read the Full Article:

https://nypost.com/2023/03/02/a-university-finally-stands-up-to-woke-virtue-signaling/

The University of North Carolina (UNC) moved against encroaching woke culture and voted to ban diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) statements and politically preferential hiring.

UNC voted to ban DEI statements and compelled speech from admission, hiring, promotion and tenure at its Board of Governors meeting Thursday.

To Read The Full Article Click Link Below:

https://www.foxnews.com/media/university-north-carolina-moves-ban-diversity-equity-inclusion-statements-anti-woke-backlash

Our editorial on Friday about the University of North Carolina’s effort to create a new school dedicated to free inquiry and open academic discourse has caused a fuss on campus that illustrates why the new school is needed. It seems that faculty grandees are outraged that the UNC board of trustees thought such a school is necessary and didn’t even seek the faculty’s permission.

Click link below to read the full article:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/university-of-north-carolina-school-of-civic-life-and-leadership-daily-tar-heel-board-of-trustees-11675203324#

Progressive politics has dominated elite universities since before the term woke was coined. But one university is trying to revive the academic ideal of a campus as a haven for free inquiry and debate. On Thursday the University of North Carolina board of trustees voted 12-0 to create a new school committed to free expression in higher education.

Click link below to read the full article:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/university-of-north-carolina-school-of-civic-life-and-leadership-board-of-trustees-11674773696?page=1

While North Carolina is often considered a “purple state,” the composition of UNC-System campaign contributions is anything but bipartisan. OpenSecrets data indicate that campaign contributions to Democrats among UNC-System employees outweighed those to Republicans by more than 20 to 1 in the 2020 and 2022 election cycles.

Click link below to read full article:

https://www.jamesgmartin.center/2022/12/unc-system-employees-really-love-democrats/

There are times when “I told you so” is unpleasant to say. This is one of those occasions.

In May, the Martin Center reported on the appointment of a new dean, Raul Reis, at UNC-Chapel Hill’s School of Journalism. Based on Reis’s previous work and his professed dedication to “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI), the Martin Center warned that this new hire might seek to remake the school in the image of DEI. That prediction, unfortunately, appears to have come true.

Click the link below to read the full article:

https://www.jamesgmartin.center/2022/12/ideological-compulsion-at-the-unc-school-of-journalism/

Vietnam War-inspired protests were all but gone on campuses when I started college in 1974, but the “free speech” movement they spawned was just getting started.

It’s no secret that this college-anchored free speech movement has evolved since the early 1980s, when “free speech zones” were established on campus grounds. But free speech advocates soon began to challenge them as too restrictive.

Click link below to read the full article:

https://kellyjohnston.substack.com/p/has-your-university-signed-the-chicago

Washington, D.C. – Today, Reps. Greg Murphy, M.D., Virginia Foxx, Kat Cammack, Burgess Owens, and Mariannette Miller-Meeks held the second annual Congressional Campus Free Speech Roundtable in the U.S. Capitol. The event brought together leaders from the Young America’s Foundation (YAF), the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), current college students, and members of the Alumni Free Speech Alliance (AFSA) to discuss First Amendment concerns in post-secondary education.

Click the link below to read the full article:

https://gregmurphy.house.gov/media/press-releases/murphy-champions-first-amendment-rights-annual-campus-free-speech-roundtable

Frank Hill

Former UNC Chapel Hill Chancellor Holden Thorp published “The Charade of Political Neutrality” in the Sept. 16 edition of the Chronicle of Higher Education.

He tried to make the case that conservative politicians want to dictate what colleges teach and who teaches what subjects. What he and virtually all administrators and faculty fail to understand about conservatives is they couldn’t care less what any administrator or faculty says at Carolina or any other college ― as long as other faculty and students have the guaranteed freedom to say whatever they want in response without fear of reprisal, ostracism, suppression or ridicule supported by the administration. Or worse, be declined tenure as a young professor or get a failing grade as a student for not adhering to the liberal ideology imposed by their superiors.

Read More:
https://nsjonline.com/article/2022/10/hill-holden-thorp-and-the-charade-of-political-neutrality/

Mark McNeilly

On July 27, 2022, the University of North Carolina Board of Trustees passed a resolution adopting both the University of Chicago’s Free Speech Statement and its Kalven Report. Chicago’s Free Speech Statement, which guarantees free expression at the university, is well known in academia. According to the campus free speech organization FIRE, 87 universities have adopted the Statement as of July 2022. Much less well known is the Kalven Report, which focuses on institutional neutrality.

Read More:
https://heterodoxacademy.org/blog/universities-should-adopt-institutional-neutrality/

A professor at the University of North Carolina recently sent me an article on a “free speech event” held at the UNC Center for Media Law and Policy as part of the University’s 13th First Amendment Day celebration. What was striking about the free speech panel was not just that it was decidedly opposed to core free speech principles but it lacked a single panelist who spoke primarily in favor of free speech and against censorship.

Read More:
https://jonathanturley.org/2022/09/29/unc-holds-first-amendment-celebration-with-one-sided-condemnations-of-free-speech-values/

Jenna Robinson

It’s no secret that university students, once know for their brash defense of unfettered free speech, have gone rather quiet on the issue.

Read More:
https://www.jamesgmartin.center/2022/09/bias-response-teams-have-no-place-on-n-c-campuses/

28% of students say shouting down a speaker to prevent them from speaking on campus is never acceptable.

44% of students say they have rarely or never self-censored on campus.

37% of students say they are not worried about damaging their reputation because someone misunderstands something they have said or done.

For every one conservative student, there are roughly 3.4 liberal students.

Read More:
https://rankings.thefire.org/rank/school/university-of-north-carolina-at-chapel-hill

Jukka Savolainen

Nature Human Behavior, one of the most prestigious journals for social science research, recently published an editorial titled “Science must respect the dignity and rights of all humans.” Though short, the article generated tremendous pushback among academics and intellectuals concerned about the spread of social-justice ideology into science.

Read More:
https://www.city-journal.org/nature-human-behavior-editorial-is-anti-science

UNC’s Board of Trustees adopts a resolution on free expression and institutional neutrality—but the school’s academic departments remain committed to ideological coercion.

Read More:
https://www.city-journal.org/does-the-university-of-north-carolina-care-about-academic-freedom

The purpose of higher education in a democracy is to promote the discovery, refinement and sharing of knowledge and wisdom through free and open inquiry and debate. Censorship, dogma and intolerance have no place in our universities.

Read more at: https://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/article264379286.html#storylink=cpy

On May 17, the University of North Carolina (UNC) System released a report on the status of “Free Expression and Constructive Dialogue” at member schools.

Key findings of the report included that “[c]ampuses do not consistently achieve an atmosphere that promotes free expression,” “[s]tudents who identify as conservative face distinctive challenges,” and “[s]tudents across the political spectrum want more opportunities to engage with those who think differently.”

https://campusreform.org/article?id=19944

Last week, the UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees passed two important resolutions on campus viewpoint neutrality. With the addition of these protections, UNC’s free-speech policies are among the best in the nation.

https://www.jamesgmartin.center/2022/08/did-you-know-unc-chapel-hill-now-has-some-of-the-best-free-speech-policies-in-the-nation/

University trustees seldom do much good, but the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill Board of Trustees has just passed two strong resolutions, available here.

One states that funds collected from mandatory student fees are to be distributed in a viewpoint-neutral fashion. That is to say, without favoritism for “progressive” organizations or hostility toward conservative and libertarian ones. University administrators have often played favorites and it’s a good thing that school policy now forbids it.

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/chapel-hills-trustees-pass-two-strong-resolutions/

One of the most important principles for preserving a spirit of inquiry, discovery, and discussion on university campuses is institutional neutrality. This means that, while individual faculty are free to say what they like, universities should not take positions as institutions (or as units within the institution) on divisive political matters.

https://www.jamesgmartin.center/2022/07/did-you-know-post-roe-unc-chapel-hill-has-struggled-to-stay-neutral/

About two years ago, I spoke to a class of UNC-Chapel Hill students about free speech: what it is and why it is important. I covered some basic points such as the kinds of speech the First Amendment does and does not protect.

Click link below to read full article

https://www.jamesgmartin.center/2021/07/free-expression-at-unc-schools-freshman-orientation-edition/

Last month, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) released a report accusing the North Carolina General Assembly and the UNC Board of Governors of “political interference” at UNC-Chapel Hill and across the UNC System.

As the Martin Center predicted in October, the report is a clear hit job on people and policies that its authors don’t like. In its zeal to criticize Republicans, it misses something fundamental: Governance of public universities has always been political.

Click link below to read full article

https://www.jamesgmartin.center/2022/05/the-unc-board-of-governors-has-always-been-political/

Press Release: AAUP Report Wrongly Accuses Two UNC Governing BoardsNew York, NY; May 6, 2022 — The National Association of Scholars (NAS) strongly disagrees with the conclusion of the American Association of University Professors’ (AAUP) provocatively titled new report, Governance, Academic Freedom, and Institutional Racism in the University of North Carolina System.

Click link below to read full article

https://www.nas.org/blogs/press_release/press-release-aaup-report-wrongly-accuses-two-unc-governing-boards

An air of illiberalism has taken hold at a prominent school within UNC-Chapel Hill, America’s oldest public university. If unchecked, the pattern threatens a liberal arts education’s very foundation: the freedom to challenge orthodoxy.

Click link below to read full article

https://www.charlotteobserver.com/opinion/article259534554.html#storylink=cpy

UNC-Chapel Hill is among the the 10 worst colleges in the nation for free speech, according to an annual roundup by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.

Click link below to read full article

https://pulse.ncpolicywatch.org/2022/03/22/unc-chapel-hill-makes-list-of-10-worst-campuses-for-free-speech/#sthash.glFLLuVA.oSmdHDf4.dpbs

The UNC system needs to improve its transparency—an argument that the Martin Center has been making for about as long as it has been in existence. More specifically, the UNC system and the Boards of Trustees (BOT) of each of the 16 universities should have some key information more readily accessible to the public.

Click link below to read full article

https://www.jamesgmartin.center/2022/03/the-unc-system-can-and-should-be-more-open-with-the-public/

When Leah Church got into the University of North Carolina (UNC), she cried. Her mom cried. Her sister cried.

It was her dream school, and she hadn’t even applied.

Click link below to read full article

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/college-basketball/

Critical Social Justice (CSJ) poses a threat to higher education and to the American way of life. This school of thought goes by many names, including Critical Race Theory, Critical Theory, Multiculturalism, and Identity Politics. All these ideologies divide the world into aggrieved minorities and oppressive majorities, reducing people to a group identity grounded in immutable characteristics such as race and sex.

Click link below to read full article

https://www.jamesgmartin.center/2022/01/critical-social-justice-in-the-unc-system/

A University of North Carolina course titled “Global Whiteness” puts the onus on the United States and the West for the conflict against Japan in World War II.

Professor Mark Driscoll’s class also involves student presentations on topics such as Donald Trump’s racism and “interracial hookups on campus.”

Click link below to read full article

https://www.thecollegefix.com/u-north-carolina-global-whiteness-course-blames-u-s-for-conflict-against-japan-in-wwii/