Following is my e-mail conversation with someone who identified himself as one of Jane Christensen’s students at N.C. Wesleyan College (some background for those who need it). I provide it because I think the student’s progression in the exchange rewarded my optimism for him.
The University of North Carolina system is hunting for a new president. Molly C. Broad, the current president, has announced her resignation and a committee of 13 distinguished individuals has been given the task of selecting her successor.
Perhaps it’s just public relations, but the committee has scheduled “town hall” meetings around the state this month to hear from people who have ideas on this matter. I have some definite ideas about the characteristics of the person the search committee should choose.
First, the individual must have an overriding commitment to academic integrity. Of course, every candidate is going to pay lip service to academics. The tough job will be to get through the rhetorical smokescreen to find out if it’s just talk.
Independent Institute and Cambridge University Press, 2005, 279 pp., $28.99 American colleges and universities are hothouses of hypocrisy and the principal exhibit is the fact that while their spokesmen talk … Continue reading “Restoring Free Speech and Liberty on Campus”
CHAPEL HILL – A town hall meeting Thursday afternoon at UNC-Chapel Hill provided a short glimpse into the mindset of a search committee commissioned to find a new president for the UNC system. The current president, Molly C. Broad, announced her retirement last month, effective at the end of the 2005-06 academic year.
During the one hour meeting, several people spoke about their desires for a new president – a strong leader who knows North Carolina was the most prominent of the wishes – and what they would like to see the committee do. At the end of the meeting, the only thing guaranteed was that the committee would be very deliberate in the coming weeks and months in selecting Molly Broad’s successor.
In a May 1 column in The Oklahoman, University of Oklahoma president David Boren sent up a loud cry of “Wolf!” over the prospect that Oklahoma may do what quite a few other states are doing – shifting some of the burden of paying for the state university system from the taxpayers to students and other parties who are willing to donate money. Mr. Boren finds this “alarming” because it “threatens to close the door of opportunity.”
RALEIGH – Most the discussion regarding the state Senate’s budget proposal for higher education has focused on plans to allow UNC-Chapel Hill and N.C. State University more autonomy to set tuition. Other proposals are worthy of controversy, too, however, because they are simply a waste of taxpayer money.
In all, the Senate budget proposed a budget of $2.07 billion in 2006 and $2.1 billion in 2007 for the UNC system. Of that N.C. State would receive $298 million for academic affairs in 2006, while UNC-Chapel Hill would receive $212 million. Only the Department of Public Instruction ($6.69 billion) and the Department of Health and Human Services ($3.96 billion) have a larger proposed appropriation than the UNC system.
The following is my e-mail exchange with NC Wesleyan Prof. Jane Christensen, teacher of Political Science 495: “911 The Road to Tyranny.”
Paul Krugman is a columnist who never passes up an opportunity to throw jabs at those Americans whom he dislikes, a set that comprises anyone who doesn’t accept his big-government philosophy. All the jabbing would be fine if Krugman limited himself to serious arguments, but serious arguments might be too boring for his New York Times editors, so he often resorts to cheap shots and fallacious reasoning. His April 5, 2005 column “An Academic Question” is a case in point. (Site requires registration.)
RALEIGH – Daniel Klein is a distinct minority in academia. Sure, he’s open about his beliefs and is not afraid to tell you what they are. The thing is his belief system runs counter to the vast majority of professors in academia today.
Klein, currently an economics professor at the University of Santa Clara who will move to George Mason University in the fall, is one of the few in academia who do not subscribe to liberal ideology. He is a libertarian in a profession filled with leftist professors and administrations.
