Speeches offer Bush Higher Education Plan
CHAPEL HILL — Though most of the State of the Union address Feb. 2 dealt with reforms to Social Security and spreading freedom throughout the world, President Bush also focused attention on his higher-education goals.
During his fifth State of the Union address, Bush advocated increasing Pell Grant funding as well as providing more funding for workforce training initiatives for community colleges. Both proposals were ways, Bush said, “to make our economy stronger and more dynamic.”
What the [heck] class do you watch anti-war music videos in?
Critics of higher education often write about leftist bias in the classroom, barely literate students who somehow gain admission, dumbing down of course content, and academically disengaged students. Sometimes, however, those problems write themselves.
Revisionist attempt to erase history
In December, UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor James Moeser retired the Spencer Bell Award after questions were raised over the award’s “integrity.” A January 12 article in The Daily Tar Heel explained the decision by citing a December 3 letter from the Chancellor. “Some esteemed women on our campus—women who I think could be considered for the Bell Award—were asked if they would accept it if it were offered. Their answer was ‘no.’”
That was enough to dump an award going back more than a century.
Cornelia Phillips Spencer is best known for her efforts to reopen UNC after reconstruction. Upon hearing that the University would reopen in 1875, Spencer ran to the University bell tower and rang the bell in an effort to inform others of the good news. Hence the title: Spencer Bell Award.
O’Dell speaks to NBC 17
Note: Here is a copy of an interview of North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics teacher Carol O’Dell. The interview was part of the NBC 17 program “At Issue” and was conducted by moderator Donald Jones and Donna Martinez of the John Locke Foundation. The topic of the interview was O’Dell’s assertions that NCSSM is declining academically. O’Dell was informed by school administrators that her contract would not be renewed mainly because she has been critical of the school’s apparent academic decline. NCSSM officials declined a request by NBC 17 to appear on the program. The interviewed aired December 19, 2004.
Tuition Waivers Challenged
CHAPEL HILL – A report released by the John W. Pope Center for Higher Education Policy today challenges the merits of the tuition waiver program at the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, while shedding light on academic and administrative concerns at the school.
Despite the landmark Supreme Court ruling, race preferences continue to roil
RALEIGH — In June 2003, the Supreme Court heard two cases concerning racial preferences in Michigan higher education, Gratz v. Bollinger (on preferences used by the University of Michigan) and Grutter v. Bollinger (on preferences used by its Law School). The Court ruling against outright racial preferences in admissions while ruling in favor of considering race in admissions so long as it is used as only one of “pertinent elements of diversity.”
Wrestling with Title IX
For more than 30 years, Title IX of the Education Amendments has been heralded as the reason for the increase in the number of women’s athletic programs across the country and providing opportunities for women like Mia Hamm to compete on the college level.
While Title IX has provided more opportunities in athletics for women, it has done the opposite for men. A federal guideline intended to prevent discrimination among the sexes in education has done just the opposite in college athletics. Title IX requirements have been used to cut athletic opportunities for men, while at the same time increasing opportunities for women.
In defense of mockery as criticism
Democritus, the “laughing philosopher,” was described by Laurence Sterne as “trying all the powers of irony and laughter to reclaim” the town of Abdera, “the vilest and most profligate town of Thrace.” Meanwhile, some UNC-Chapel Hill faculty members complain about the mockery of the Pope Center.
Students have a new resource to help them know their rights on campus
RALEIGH — The new year has presented “academic freedom” with a grave new threat. The Foundation for Individual Liberty has published its Guide to Free Speech on Campus. The guide gives a shot in the arm, however, to academic freedom.
The haunting fear that someone, somewhere in the classroom, may be conservative
Remember H.L. Mencken’s famous jest about Puritanism? “The haunting fear that someone, somewhere is happy.” Apply it to F.H. Buckley’s observations that “The modern Puritan devotes himself to political rather than religious duties” and that this Puritanism “is particularly pronounced in the academy.” Does that not explain this spectacle of self-righteous UNC professors carping about mockery and fearing political infidels in the classroom?