The Lockstep Leftists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

No to Western civilzation:

More than 70 faculty members at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are demanding that administrators stop negotiations with a foundation that wants to create a Western cultures program at the school. Chancellor James Moeser said he believes many faculty members are wary of the proposal simply because of the John William Pope Foundation's conservative values. "It will be a major enhancement of our offerings in Western civilizations," he said Wednesday. "And it won't be done at the expense of any other program."

The proposed program would include an academic minor in Western cultures, new honors courses, freshman seminars, undergraduate research awards and study abroad scholarships. The foundation gave the university $25,000 to study the proposal and has said it could donate up to $700,000 a year to fund it initially.

Faculty members complained in a letter to administrators that they have not been adequately involved in the discussions. Sue Estroff, professor of social medicine and former faculty chairwoman, said a recent curriculum revision revealed no need for more emphasis in Western studies. "Are we for sale, and if so, what for, and if not, what are the guidelines?" she asked.

Foundation President Art Pope has said the proposal is not an attempt to influence the university's curriculum. "We're not going to let a handful of left-wing faculty stop the students from benefiting from the program," he said.

Source


No to Christianity:

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill must recognize a Christian fraternity that has waged a legal fight challenging the school's nondiscrimination policy. The preliminary injunction issued by U.S. District Court Judge Frank W. Bullock Jr. will remain in place until the case is resolved, possibly by trial.

Alpha Iota Omega was stripped of its status as an official campus group because the fraternity wont accept nonbelievers or gay students. The university revoked the recognition after fraternity members refused to sign the school's nondiscrimination policy. The three-member fraternity sued last year, saying UNC-CH had violated their constitutional rights to free speech, free assembly and free exercise of religion. Recognition gives the fraternity access to student funds and university facilities.

The preliminary injunction put the Christian fraternity "on the same footing as nonreligious organizations which select their members on the basis of commitment ... ," Bullock wrote in an order issued Wednesday. The merits of the case probably favor the fraternity, but the order is consistent with the university attorneys "current unofficial interpretation of their nondiscrimination policy," Bullock wrote. The university's policy "raises significant constitutional concerns and could be violative of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution," he also wrote.

Attorneys for the fraternity were happy with the judges preliminary injunction. "This is the first battle in the lawsuit, and we are victorious in that sense," said Joshua Carden, a staff attorney at the Alliance Defense Fund, the Arizona-based organization representing the fraternity.

The State Attorney Generals Office, which represents UNC-CH, said it continues to support the university's policy. "We continue to believe in the merits of the university's position and the value of the nondiscrimination policy," the statement said. "The university's goal remains the proper and careful balancing of students First Amendment rights with the rights guaranteed by the U.S. and North Carolina Constitutions to equal protection of the laws and freedom from discrimination."

The fraternity's attorneys say they hope to force the university to rewrite its policy for recognizing student groups. "We want to see some permanent change that will keep this from happening to other groups," Carden said.

Source


No to freedom of speech about homosexuality

For those who doubt the degree of malice against conservative students, the story of a beleaguered Christian at UNC-Chapel Hill provides some disturbing evidence. Engaged in classroom discussion, the student merely responded to his professor's lecture. The topic: why heterosexual men are intimidated by gays. The Christian interjected that he was not intimidated and believed that homosexuality is immoral. His professor rebuked him in a class-wide e-mail, labeling the young UNC-goer as a sexist bigot. Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.) heard about the incident over the radio and came to the hapless student's defense. However, even congressional lobbying only went so far. The offending professor retained her post with minimal consequences.

More here


Yes to Marxism

Once again UNC has selected a controversial book for its incoming freshman to read, according to a report in the July 11, 2003 edition of the Chronicle of Higher Education (CHE): The book is Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, penned by radical leftist Barbara Ehrenreich. Ironically, UNC administrators thought, as interim Vice Chancellor Dean L. Bresciani said, "it would be a relatively tame selection." However, the move is being criticized by some legislators in North Carolina, who (rightly) describe her work as liberal propaganda infused with religious bigotry.

One critic of Ehrenreich's book is North Carolina State Senator Austin Allran. The Chronicle quoted him as saying, "I don't like the disparaging remarks made about Jesus." Those references are of the liberation theology model; to Ehrenreich, Jesus is a Marxist revolutionary. Allran said the university's reading list should come from the classics. Bresciani explained that the university does not assign classics because students are expected to read those on their own. (Does he really expect students to thumb through The Iliad on the beach during Spring Break in Miami?)

Ehrenreich's book, which is purportedly about the plight of the working poor, is replete with references to race, class, religion, and Communism. Ehrenreich bona fides in the field of Marxism are evinced throughout her illustrious career as possibly the most respected female "intellectual" in modern academia. When not writing for Harper's, Time, The Nation and New York Time Magazine, she is the Vice-Chair of the Democratic Socialists of America.Her theoretical Marxism is mentioned in the text itself; she mentions reading Mao before going to sleep. If that's the case, Nickel and Dimed could be her dream journal.

According to an interview of Ehrenreich in the August 5, 2001, edition of Socialist Worker Online, "Ehrenreich researched her book by taking a series of low-wage jobs." Eherenreich's interview with the newspaper of the International Socialist Organization, a group that believes that capitalism produces poverty, racism, famine, environmental catastrophe and war,[1][1] is just another indication of her communist ideological bias.

More here


Yes to the Koran

Incoming freshmen at the University of North Carolina will participate in discussion groups on Islam's holy text after a judge ruled that having them read a book about the Quran did not threaten religious freedoms. U.S. District Judge Carlton Tilley Jr. refused yesterday to grant a temporary restraining order requested by two taxpayers, one of them an official of the conservative Virginia-based Family Policy Network, and three unidentified freshmen.

Attorneys for the network said they filed an appeal minutes after the judge recessed court. The appeal is to be considered by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va. Both sides claimed a victory after the ruling. Network President Joe Glover said the lawsuit forced the university to change its program from a required reading and discussion to a voluntary program.

University Chancellor James Moeser said the program was never required in the first place, and was intended to stimulate critical thinking in freshmen. He said opponents of the program "consistently missed the point." "There's absolutely no penalty," the chancellor said. "We have no way of knowing which students show up, we don't take roll, there's no grade. There never was."

The plaintiffs sued last month to overturn an assignment for 4,200 transfer students and freshmen at the Chapel Hill campus to read and discuss "Approaching the Qur'an: The Early Revelations", by Michael Sells. Lawyers for the network argued that the program ignored violent passages in the Quran and sought to indoctrinate students with the idea that the religion embraced only peace. They also said the university's announcements on post cards sent to students appeared to be requiring the reading. "The university initially required everyone to read the book and write a paper," said James Yacovelli of Youngsville, the center's state director and one of the individual plaintiffs. "Now you don't have to do anything."....

More here. (This post also posted at Blogger News)


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