Archives

News
Posted by : In News

There’s already been much said about the lives that the student victims of Wednesday’s triple-shooting death in Chapel Hill led.

Here, you can hear directly from one of the victims, and some of her thoughts about growing up Muslim in North Carolina, and her larger worldview about peace and tolerance.

Yusor Abu-Salha, a 21-year-old newlywed who planned on entering UNC’s Dentistry school this fall, participated in a Story Corps interview with NPR when the national project visited Durham last summer.

In it, Abu-Salha spoke with a former teacher Sister Jabeen at Raleigh’s Al-Iman school and the two discussed how students at the school balanced and blended their American and Muslim identities, and the universal need for respecting others beliefs and backgrounds.

Listen here, or below.

 

Commentary
Posted by : In Commentary

DeanSmithI didn’t attend UNC and had only lived in North Carolina for a year when Coach Dean Smith won his final NCAA championship in 1993. I do have two daughters who are both Chapel Hill grads, but save for that and my admiration/appreciation for the school, any connections to Coach Smith that I have ever enjoyed have been, to say the least, extremely attenuated. Indeed, for my college basketball coaching hero — the late, great John Robert Wooden — Smith was an up and coming rival back in the day.

It is therefore, above all, a sense of gratitude that I feel today to the troubled, if unwitting, souls at the Pope-Civitas Institute for producing a list in recent weeks — the so-called “Map of the Left” — that would include us both. What a gift that they actually got the darned thing out before Coach Smith passed.

Indeed, the more I think about it, the more I am struck by what a great gift the Pope-Civitas people have given to the hundreds of caring and thinking folks who were named. From now on, all of us will always be able to proudly wear the badge of honor of having been associated with such a great man.

And as David Zirin of The Nation (among many others), explained this morning, there were loads of great reasons that Smith was included on the “map” — especially his passionate opposition to racism in all of its ugly manifestations (most notably the death penalty). Even if the silly Civitasers want to think of it as a “vast and shadowy network,” the so-called “map” is, for the most part, a list of people and organizations dedicated to truth, love, sunlight and modernity — i.e. the same things Smith fought for throughout his admirable life.

RIP Coach Smith. All members of the progressive cause in our state are honored to have had such a marvelous teammate.

News
Posted by : In News
UNC President Tom Ross

UNC President Tom Ross

The Chronicle of Higher Education recently requested and reviewed hundreds of emails that UNC President Tom Ross received Jan. 16, the day he was forced out of his job by the UNC Board of Governors.

Ross, who had been the head of the UNC system since 2011, has said he hoped to stay on with the university system, but a board appointed by Republican leaders opted instead to replace him in 2016, a move that many by surprise.

Ross plans on staying on as president until January 2016 or until his successor is selected, whichever is later.

Among the messages Ross received on the day he was dismissed were notes from another former UNC president, Erskine Bowles, as well as Fred Eshelman, a former Board of Governor member and prominent Republican fundraiser.

You can read more of the email snippets over at the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Commentary
Posted by : 9 Comments In Commentary

Tom Ross_1162015If you haven’t done so already, check out Charlotte Observer contributor Alice Carmichael Richey’s essay decrying the UNC Board of Governor’s inexplicable firing of system president, Tom Ross (pictured at left).

As Richey argues persuasively, the Board’s actions simply ought not to be allowed to stand in their present form — i.e. unexplained.

“The board acknowledged its decision had nothing to do with Ross’s ‘performance or ability to continue in the office’ and was made despite the board’s belief that he ‘has been a wonderful president’ with a ‘fantastic work ethic’ and ‘perfect integrity’ who ‘worked well with [the] Board.’”

After quoting the board chair, she goes on:

“All of this begs at least two questions: Why did the board make this decision and, no less important in light of public reaction, will the board reconsider? Read More

Commentary
Posted by : 9 Comments In Commentary

The tone is very measured, but the basic message of this morning’s editorial in the Wilmington Star News echoes the the negative reviews that have been appearing over the last few days to the UNC Board of Governors’ decision to fire President Tom Ross:

“It is understandable that the board would want to leave its own mark on the university, and the most effective way to do that is to appoint a president of its choosing. But given the partisan transition in state government, which is also reflected on the board, there is reason to worry that political ideology might play a larger role than it should in UNC’s future.

Historically, the president’s loyalty has been to the legacy of the University of North Carolina system, not to partisan agendas. There have been signs that this board intends to make major – and not necessarily positive – changes in an institution that has grown into one of the nation’s most respected public university systems.

While a strategic plan completed by Ross and the board rightly focuses on the need to increase graduation rates and provide a better pathway into the job market for students, a conservative push to marginalize liberal arts education – unfairly maligned even by Gov. Pat McCrory as being of less value than other types of degrees – has been disappointing.”

In short, Chris Fitzsimon put it more pointedly in his take down of the decision last week, but the basic message is the same: The Ross firing is just the latest act in the longstanding conservative scheme to remake the university system in a partisan and ideological fashion and the state is going to suffer as a result. Read the entire editorial by clicking here.

Previous 1 23 4 Next

Support Our Work

NC Policy Watch on Twitter

Copyright 2015 | The Progressive Pulse | A Blog from NC Policy Watch