Note: The following document was attached to this UNC-CH leftist listserv posting quoted in the Lockerroom. The document is quoted verbatim, save that links to the information are given throughout the text rather than in endnotes.
Should UNC-CH Accept $12 Million
from Racist, Sexist, Classist, Homophobic Donors?Did you know that some UNC-CH faculty and administrators are working on a several million dollar grant to create a certificate entitled, “Studies in Western Civilization”? The donors are John and Art Pope, whose family funds the John William Pope Foundation, the Pope Center for Higher Education Policy, and the John Locke Foundation. These organizations have systematically attacked and discredited many programs and professors at UNC-Chapel Hill and other universities. For example, they have attacked:
1. Dr. William “Sandy” Darity’s course, “The Social and Economic History of the Black Presence at UNC Chapel Hill,” describing the course as consisting of “academic navel-gazing, subject matter hardly tangential to the discipline the course is listed under, use of multicultural justification to ward off the previous two criticisms, plus professors tricking undergrads into doing their research for them;”
2. a course at NCSU organized to address and end men’s violence against women, which was described as having a message “smothered in a hash of leftist twaddle;”
3. a course on Race, Class, and Gender Oppression, sarcastically noting, “UNC-Chapel Hill course hits the trifecta: Race, Class, and Gender”(emphasis in original);
4. a Women’s Studies course called “Girl Culture: Studies in Femininity and Feminism,” about which a staff member derisively commented, “The course description clearly states that it contains the all-important academic focus on ‘race, ethnicity, sexuality, and economic class.’ No matter how ridiculous a course topic sounds, as long as the instructor can relate it to that neomarxist focus, all is well in academe. Right?”;
5. the cultural diversity requirement at UNC-CH, which was described as consisting of “evangelistic courses for actual, successful indoctrination.”
6. the multidisciplinary Social and Economic Justice Minor at UNC-Chapel Hill, belittled by Pope Center personnel who said, “New ‘minor’ offerings being the latest rage at colleges and especially UNC-CH for peddling politicized hokum, this minor stands out;”
7. the multidisciplinary Sexuality Studies Curriculum, in the process dismissing the systematic discrimination faced by LGBTQ identified people at UNC as they described queer students who spoke out against homophobic discrimination by saying “they are some pigs”.
8. the Latina/o Studies Program at UNC-CH, of which Pope Center Director George Leef asked, “is it even true that there is a ‘Latina/o’ culture to understand?”
9. the Carolina Covenant, Chancellor Moeser’s program designed to provide accessible education to UNC-CH for the children of NC’s working poor, which Leef described as nothing more than an example of “‘feel good’ measures so beloved of public officials, generating some good PR, but accomplishing nothing,” and called the program a “free ride” even though Covenant students are required to engage in work study programs; and,
10. academic freedom by hosting David Horowitz, founder of the conservative Center for the Study of Popular Culture (CSPC), at a day-long October 16th conference. Horowitz spoke in support of his “Academic Bill of Rights,” designed to “promote intellectual diversity” in higher education. Yet the bill is only cloaked in the language of freedom and diversity. The American Association of University Professors calls it “improper and dangerous,” noting that it, “infringes academic freedom in the very act of purporting to protect it.” The bill is designed to grant control over courses to legislatures rather than faculty and graduate student instructors, thus usurping teachers’ autonomy. The bill has passed in Georgia, and Horowitz has introduced a national version of it, co-sponsored by U.S. congressperson Walter Jones, that is currently being reviewed by a congressional committee.
Previously, Horowitz led an anti-reparations campaign across many U.S. colleges, placing full-page advertisements headlined “Ten Reasons Why Reparations for Slavery is a Bad Idea – and Racist Too.” In a debate with Julianne Malveaux, an economist, on the Fox News Channel, Horowitz alleged “that Black people in the United States ought to be grateful that they were brought to America because they now enjoy a much higher standard of living than other black people throughout the world.”
Charlotte Observer writer Anna Griffin, in a column about Art Pope, noted that he and his family have, “spent millions to promote conservative ideals” in North Carolina and beyond. But while the Popes are benefactors in this regard, she notes that when they hand out money, “[t]hey do expect loyalty to those beliefs.”
Are these the beliefs to which UNC-CH should have loyalty? Given that this proposal must be renewed by the Popes after five years, UNC-CH will have to remain loyal to ensure continued funding. In other words, this money does not come without strings attached.
Some faculty and students are taking a stand. Please visit the following for more information about this: http://indyweek.com/durham/2004-10-06/news.html and http://indyweek.com/durham/2004-10-06/upfront.html.
Also, please join us in taking a stand. The next Arts and Sciences Faculty Meeting will address these issues. The meeting will take place on Monday, November 15th, at 3:30 in Wilson Library. Students, staff and faculty interested in supporting a climate geared toward social justice at UNC-CH are encouraged to meet at 3 pm on the steps of Wilson Library on the 15th. This affects the entire campus community. Our voices must be heard.
Two similar versions of the above screed were also to the listserv posting. One concluded with:
Stand up against this. Come to a protest on the steps
of Wilson Library at 3pm on Monday, November 15th