UNC is not a gated castle and liberals aren’t the gatekeepers | Opinion

I read often about supposed Republican meddling in higher education in North Carolina and wonder: Am I crazy, or are the critics?

The charge itself betrays an extreme position, and I’m not sure those who level it truly understand that. For if Republican involvement constitutes “meddling,” then it stands to reason only Democrats can control higher education. Republicans are the intruders, trespassing on somebody else’s property.

The left-leaning American Association of University Professors concocted a survey in September that they say shows “an overwhelming majority” (66.7%) of faculty from four southern states, including North Carolina, were put off by Republican “interference” and planned to leave.

But the survey wouldn’t pass muster in a 101 class. According to Inside Higher Ed, AAUP distributed it via social media and “faculty members could fill it out multiple times.” The tactics the group that represents professors in North Carolina will employ to attack Republican involvement in higher education boggles the mind.

This isn’t how public education should work. A university is not some gated castle, insulated from every other part of public governance. It is an entity created by and for the people of this state, subject to their direction and oversight through their elected representatives. Those who speak so often of the virtue of shared governance should understand this.

Yet at every turn, the gatekeepers try to raise the bridges and fill the moat.

Take the School of Civic Life and Leadership as an example. The usual critics were very mad at the suggestion the school, housed within UNC, might become a center for conservative thought.

That’s not really what happened, but even if it did: So what? Conservatives have dealt with a faculty that has skewed heavily to one viewpoint for decades. Academics often extoll the importance of making the education system look like the population it serves, but that virtue doesn’t seem to apply this time.

Take the reaction to Hamas’ Oct. 7 slaughter of civilians as another. Leaders at UNC-CH seemed lost as some faculty and students celebrated the violence.

I acknowledge this is a challenging issue. I’ve written in these pages about the importance of intellectual diversity. But a reasonable person should be able to see two extremes — a speaker at a UNC-Chapel Hill-sponsored event speaking with admiration for Hamas and calling Oct. 7 “a beautiful day” on one end and administrators at two UNC schools disqualifying faculty candidates with social justice litmus tests on the other end — and conclude that we should land somewhere in the middle.

As University of Florida President Ben Sasse said, “This shouldn’t be hard… We will protect our students and we will protect speech.”

To their credit, more than 200 UNC faculty signed on to a letter excoriating leadership for its tepid response to the speaker who referred to Oct. 7 as “a beautiful day.”

The coup de grâce, of course, is the opposition to interim UNC Chancellor Lee Roberts that came just hours after his appointment. Roberts is a technocrat who served as budget director under former Gov. Pat McCrory.

Days before Roberts’ appointment, UNC law professor Gene Nichol called the impending appointment ‘faithless and unethical.” Another Observer columnist later said Roberts “is clearly not the best qualified for the job” and his appointment was part of an effort to “undermine higher education.” Why the artillery shelling of a man who has barely started his job? Maybe because he’s not one of the gatekeepers — and that’s a very good thing.

Meanwhile, a Gallup poll shows confidence in higher education sits at an abysmal 36%, down 21 points since 2015. Call me crazy, but perhaps the gatekeepers should consider lowering the drawbridge and emptying the moat.

This story was originally published January 10, 2024 at 9:48 AM.