In case you missed it, be sure to check out the thoughtful essay written for the group Higher Education Works by former UNC chancellor James Moeser yesterday.
In it, Moeser laments the morale-busting policies of the current state political leadership:
“My point here is not to re-litigate the closing of the Poverty Center at UNC Chapel Hill, the Center for Biodiversity at East Carolina University, or the Institute for Civic Engagement and Social Change at N.C. Central University; or the abrupt dismissal without explanation of President Tom Ross. Rather, it is to focus on the collateral damage to the university from these actions and from statements from people in high places that suggest a lack of support for academic freedom, a lack of understanding of the real purpose of a public university.”
In holding up a recent letter to Raleigh’s News & Observer by Professor Joseph Ferrell, Moeser also says this:
“Joe Ferrell speaks of the ‘right of inquiry that lies at the very foundation of the university.’ That is the right to speak truth to power, to question the assumptions and the motives of those in power, and yes, to advocate for action and change. It is that tradition that has made Carolina one of America’s truly great universities. It was, indeed, the pioneering work of people like Howard Odom and Frank Porter Graham, viewing the racism and poverty of the South through the critical lens of scholarship, that allowed North Carolina to surpass all other Southern states. It was the courage to do that work, often unpopular at the time, that led North Carolinians to love UNC.
Charles Kuralt famously asked the question, ‘What binds us to this place as to no other? It is not the well, or the bell, or the stone walls, or the crisp October nights and the memory of dogwoods blooming. . . . No, our love for this place is based on the fact that it is, as it was meant to be, the University of the People.’
Now, I believe, it is time for the people to come to the aid of their university, so that it may continue as a place of free expression and free inquiry, with a positive climate in which great faculty and students can thrive for the benefit of all North Carolinians.”
Amen.
