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.
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.
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.
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.
A mistake by a Congressional staff member ignited a review of research projects approved by the National Institutes of Health. But despite what U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) called “scientific McCarthyism,” it turned out Congress had not declared war on the NIH approval process.
North Carolina State University has a new “diversity czar.” This new czar “said professors should integrate diversity into the classroom of every discipline, no matter how technical.”
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill officials are once again voicing concerns over faculty retention. The “brain drain” concern is that other universities are “raiding” UNC-CH faculty with greater salary offers. UNC-CH officials say the university lost 53 professors to “raids” last year.
A dispute over what a University of North Carolina at Wilmington professor said at a Sept. 23 forum has led to a suit threatened against the student newspaper and also a student accused of libel.
Rush Limbaugh found out what a lot of good, beleaguered individuals on college campuses already know — there’s a new definition of “racism” taking hold.