The prospect of a tuition increase inspired a few students attending University of North Carolina schools to fight back. Their tack? Inundate the proposal with their tears.
Specifically, they have published 500 copies of a book entitled “The Personal Stories Project: Faces, Not Numbers,” which is a collection of some 800-odd sob stories about tuition costs.
A report by the American Association of University Professor describes potential threats to academic freedom since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
A key portion of the report, which was prepared by a special committee tasked with “assessing risks to academic freedom and free inquiry posed by the nation’s response to the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon,” looks at provisions of the USA Patriot Act, which the report states “gravely threaten academic freedom.” In general, the report states, “The speed with which the law was introduced and passed [in October 2001], the lack of deliberation surrounding its enactment, and the directions it provides for law-enforcement agencies have raised troubling questions about its effects on privacy, civil liberties, and academic freedom.”
Indian novelist Arundhati Roy is full of rage against the United States, snidely dismissive of free-market capitalism, and an unrepentant Marxist — and in the halls of academe, she’s believed to be one of the most important voices in the world.
“Greetings! Your first step towards academic success at NC State University begins with your orientation to the university. The University requires all first-year students to attend New Student Orientation, during which you will be introduced to the academic opportunities available to you. As part of your orientation we invite you to attend the White Folks Symposium. Faculty and staff members, as well as the Symposium Counselors will be on hand to assist you and to answer your questions about NC State’s academic programs and campus activities.
This semester the College of Arts & Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has begun a semester abroad program in Cuba. UNC-CH officials say they want a “head start” on Cuba for when relations improve between Cuba and the U.S. Critics say the university implies legitimizing a dictatorship.
The last third of the twentieth century witnessed the rise and triumph of the post-modern or, better yet, the “New Age University,” whose core mission involves bringing America into a new age based on substantially altered principles and social forms.
Among the highlights: When “Free Expression” isn’t; UNC seeks more illegal immigrants and others from out-of-state; crazy rape stats aplenty; another terrorist speaker; a “diversity czar”; a self-stated friend of terrorists seeking to shut up a newspaper; a professor fired for a tolerance demonstration gone awry; and two UNC schools find the idea of student groups keeping membership and leadership reserved for students who agree with the ideas of the group unconscionable.
On Nov. 10, the University of North Carolina at Wilmington derecognized the student group the College Republicans. The university took the extreme measure — which involves freezing its funds and disallowing its use of campus facilities — because the CRs refused to add to its constitution the nondiscrimination clause the university requires. The university has also turned down a conservative student group’s application for registration for the same reason.
At issue are two nondiscrimination clauses that the Student Organization Committee requires to be in student groups’ constitutions.
Since 1997 I have written the “Course of the Month” column for Carolina Journal to highlight courses in North Carolina universities that feature “overt political content, rabid infatuation with pop culture or sexuality, [or] abject silliness.” In the seven years I have been running this feature, this course has to be the most absurd course I have ever encountered.
Abortion advocates were promoting “safe” sex as part of an October awareness week at UNC-CH. This involved “barhopping on Franklin Street passing out condoms and dental dams to unsuspecting patrons.” In other words, to celebrate emergency contraception week, abortion advocates actively encouraged drunk people to go have sex.
