Why would our country’s leaders agree to trade deals that have resulted in the loss of so many jobs? International trade agreements involve costs and benefits for the American economy. Costs include the loss of jobs to countries that can manufacture certain products more cheaply than in the United States. But what are often ignored are the benefits of freer world trade.
Suppose that you have dropped your son or daughter off at one of the campuses of the University of North Carolina system. You have plenty to worry about: housing, roommates, clothing, money, and so forth. It’s quite a load.
At the risk of further depressing you, there’s one more thing that you should be worrying about, but probably aren’t. That is the college curriculum.
A resounding affirmation of free-speech rights on college campuses was recently made by the Office for Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Education.
North Carolina’s colleges and universities are hardly the only ones in the nation affected by an economic downturn in their home state. A report released this summer shows how many public universities and colleges across the country received cuts, some substantial, in their budgets.
The Division of Student Affairs at North Carolina State University will be “Celebrating Race and Ethnicity” this semester. Really. It has even developed a full slate of programs by which to celebrate these all-important nouns.
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill hit a public-relations goldmine last year with its Summer Reading Program controversy. The PR-savvy officials at the public institution recognized at the time that they had hit upon a good formula. Little wonder why the program’s in the news again this summer.
Several months have passed since a federal commission urged changes to how the government enforces Title IX of the Education of Amendments. Several years have passed since the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights last issued a Clarification of OCR’s policies to determine compliance with the measure. On July 11, in a “Dear Colleague” letter, OCR issued what Gerald Reynolds, assistant secretary for civil rights, termed a “Further Clarification of Intercollegiate Athletics Policy Guidance Regarding Title IX Compliance.”
Conservatives willing to brave the touchy-feely miasma of the Supreme Court’s recent decision of Grutter v. Bollinger, which allows universities to consider race in admissions as an element of diversity, should be heartened by the ruling, flawed as it is. Here’s why.
Two ideas under discussion in North Carolina would make it more difficult for illegal residents of the state to be admitted to the University of North Carolina.
The first is a bill before the state Senate to extend in-state tuition rates to illegal immigrants and other noncitizens. Senate Bill 987, currently before committee, would amend the General Statutes to extend resident tuition status to any “individual who (i) has attended school in North Carolina for at least four consecutive years and (ii) has received a high school diploma from a school within North Carolina or has obtained a general education diploma (GED) issued in North Carolina.”
Next to “diversity,” used as a synonym for discrimination by race, a favorite euphemism at universities today is “critical thinking.” The usual occasions for its use, however, are rather ironic — to stymie rather than stimulate critical thinking.