Since 2015, the University of North Carolina system’s Board of Governors (BOG) has endured one controversy after another, beginning with protests over decisions to close three “academic centers” for being overly political and to replace Democrat Thomas Ross as the system president with Republican Margaret Spellings. Some of the problems have been of the board’s … Continue reading “Heavy Is the Head that Wears the Crown”
The Chronicle of Higher Education recently released a report decrying the politicization of public higher education governance, entitled The New Order: How the Nation’s Partisan Divisions Consumed Public-College Boards and Warped Higher Education. The report says more about the tunnel vision that pervades the liberal media and academic establishment than it does about the real … Continue reading “America Wants Its Public Colleges Back and The Chronicle Isn’t Happy About It”
Nowhere is “cancel culture” more deeply entrenched than in academia; it was commonplace there long before the actual phrase was coined to describe the current social media phenomenon. The gears of academia keep grinding away dissenting opinions, despite occasional paeans offered in the name of academic freedom. Those who propose uniquely original ideas can face … Continue reading “We Need to Talk About Bruce”
From the Executive Summary of Bolstering the Board: Trustees Are Academia’s Best Hope for Reform: Two conditions are needed to effect large-scale reforms in academia: a hierarchical, top- down system of governance that can enact sweeping changes, and for that system to be controlled or heavily influenced by those outside the system. Strong board governance … Continue reading “Bolstering the Board: Trustees Are Academia’s Best Hope for Reform”
On March 31, the Martin Center filed an amicus brief urging the Arizona Supreme Court to hold that the Constitution’s mandate that “the instruction furnished shall be as nearly free as possible” is a justiciable question. The Martin Center argued that sustained increases are incompatible with the provision in Arizona’s Constitution that “the instruction furnished … Continue reading “State of Arizona v. Arizona Board of Regents Amicus Curiae Brief”
A letter from the federal Department of Education has sparked yet another controversy on the campuses of Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This time, the issue is about how to honor the intentions of donors, with the donor being the federal government instead of a private individual or corporation. … Continue reading “No, Academia, Title VI Funding Is Not for Your Pleasure”
An important new front in the culture war has opened up at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, one with major implications about intellectual diversity and how universities in North Carolina are to be governed. The controversy concerns plans for a new “Program on Civic Virtue and Civil Discourse,” scheduled to begin in … Continue reading “UNC Board Steps Up to Defend Civil Discourse on Campus”
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Edmund Burke The continued employment of an unhinged, violent anarchist as a lecturer at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill says a whole lot about the university system’s standards when deciding who should influence the next generation. … Continue reading “UNC-Chapel Hill: A Sanctuary Campus for Antifa on the Taxpayer’s Dime”
The University of North Carolina at Asheville recently announced with great pride its plans to divest part of its endowment from investments based on “fossil fuels” (such as natural gas, oil, and coal). At a June 21 meeting, the Board of Trustees voted to shift $5 million of its $50 million endowment from the non-profit … Continue reading “UNC-Asheville Should Divest Itself from Irresponsible Political Posturing”
If somebody wanted to fundamentally transform a society to its roots, where would he or she start? The most logical starting point would be education. And if there were one part of the educational system that would produce this transformation most broadly, effectively, and efficiently, it would most likely be at our schools of education … Continue reading “Radically Transforming the Nation: Our Politicized Schools of Education”