UNC's Western Civ Program Catching Faculty Flak for Conservative Input
by Jim Brown
March 9, 2005
(AgapePress) - Faculty members at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill are criticizing a plan to expand course offerings in Western Civilization because the foundation being asked to fund the program is a conservative one.Last year, the College of Arts and Sciences at UNC approached the Raleigh-based Pope Foundation about funding a new program in the study of Western Civilization. But now, 71 members of the UNC faculty have sent an open letter to Chancellor James Moeser, demanding that talks between UNC and the Pope Foundation be ended.
George Leef is executive director of the Pope Center for Higher Education Policy. He says the liberal UNC faculty members want their own version of academic freedom to prevail at Chapel Hill and are not interested in a program that they regard as "Eurocentric."
However, Leef suspects there may be more to these academics' objections than meets the eye.
"What's really going on here, I believe, is that these are people who are upset about having lost the [2004 presidential] election," he says. "They're also upset about the fact that the Pope Center, which I head, routinely criticizes what we think are wasteful and frivolous things that happened throughout the UNC system, especially at Chapel Hill."
The program being considered is tentatively titled "Studies in Western Cultures." And while the Pope Center's involvement in its development has become a source of contention on the campus, Leef notes ironically that there has been no criticism of the school's new Poverty Center. That apparently well-received program is being directed by former U.S. vice-presidential candidate John Edwards, whose salary will be paid by private donations.
"There was no search for the ideal person to head this up," Leef points out about the Poverty Center. "In fact, I think it's transparently obvious that this was an idea cooked up right after [Edwards] lost the election to give him some public profile for the next few years; but there was no protest against that."
UNC faculty members that support the Poverty Center officially say it will be nonpartisan, the Pope Center spokesman says. However, he adds, "I think if you believe that, you'll believe anything."
The Western Civilization program expansion that the Pope Center is discussing with UNC would be funded by the Pope Foundation. Analysts project the program would cost an estimated five million dollars for the first five years.
