The Martin Center has won major policy victories for students and citizens—in North Carolina and around the country
Since 2003, the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal has been the voice for state higher education policy reform and excellence in higher education. The Martin Center’s goal is a lofty one: to renew and fulfill the promise of higher education in North Carolina and beyond. (You can read more about our mission and vision here.)
To get there, Martin Center writers and scholars study and report on critical issues in higher education. We use what we learn to recommend policies that can create change. We’ve led the way for reforms on a variety of issues—from campus free speech to university funding models.
With a team of dedicated policy experts and affiliates, the Martin Center has the vision to renew higher education, with prudent and effective policy solutions. We communicate these solutions to thousands of citizens and stakeholders through our website, newsletters, and social media. Every year, Martin Center experts appear on tv, radio, and podcasts, publish policy research reports and model legislation, and meet with citizens and university stakeholders.
Over the years, our work has paid off with major policy victories, improving higher education to benefit students and taxpayers in North Carolina and beyond.
Some of the Martin Center’s most notable accomplishments include:
- Inspiring new university policies on institutional neutrality, student fees, performance funding, transparency, and partisan activities
- Informing discussions in Washington, DC, on student loans and grants by testifying before Congress
- Informing legislation on free speech, students’ religious freedom, board governance, and viewpoint diversity—in North Carolina and beyond
- Writing model legislation to end political litmus tests that has been used across that country
- Ending discrimination against men in North Carolina universities by filing complaints with the Office for Civil Rights
- Holding schools of education accountable for teaching the science of literacy to North Carolina’s future teachers
- Exposing wasteful and politicized university spending to inform North Carolina’s budget priorities, including strategic cuts to higher education
- Advising trustees on model university policies and practices
- Helping to make the UNC System the best in the country for student speech protections
