Published July 27, 2003

The Durham Herald-Sun

Carolina committed to free exchange of all viewpoints

By JAMES MOESER

Numerous colleges and universities across the United States, both large and small, are using or have used “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America,” a national best seller, in their summer reading programs. That list includes three North Carolina campuses: Appalachian State, UNC-Asheville and Davidson.

Did the book cause an uproar in Columbus, Ohio, home of Ohio State, Boone, N.C., or those other locations? No.

So why is it that when the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill makes the same assignment it generates controversy?

I believe it’s a sign that Carolina really is the “university of the people,” as our great alumnus, Charles Kuralt, once so eloquently observed. That’s more than just a cliché. The people of North Carolina own this university in a very special way. They are passionate about what happens here, and thus, much of what we do in Chapel Hill is examined under the lens of a high-powered microscope.

And that is as it should be, considering what the people have invested over 200 years to make Carolina the great university that it is today. We at the university don’t seek out controversy. The university also has no political aspirations and doesn’t promote one ideological viewpoint.

As administrators and faculty members, our responsibility at Carolina is to foster an atmosphere on campus in which all of our 25,000 students – conservative, liberal, or somewhere in between – have opportunities to express their opinions.

That’s exactly why universities exist: to promote the free exchange of all ideas on topics, including controversial books, and especially in the context of a student’s own experiences. As a public university, we at Carolina have a special responsibility to vigorously protect the right of everyone, including those with any minority viewpoints, to be heard.

Our summer reading program, one small part of our overall orientation program, serves as an academic icebreaker. We ask new students to read a book over the summer and come prepared to discuss what they thought about it for two hours in small groups before classes begin. The non-credit assignment is voluntary. Our focus is on the discussion, not the book, to help introduce new students to the kind of wide-ranging exchange they can expect in classes with other students and teachers.

Our own faculty chair, Professor Judith Wegner, former law school dean, put it well when we and other colleagues recently discussed academic responsibility with a small group of concerned legislators. As faculty, we are honor-bound as professionals to constantly think to ask the question, “What about the opposite side?” Professor Wegner’s observation mirrors our expectation for faculty in the classroom. That’s how faculty are trained to teach, to prod discussion and to play the role of devil’s advocate.

This university’s nearly 210-year history is chock full of examples in which particular academic approaches taken in Chapel Hill have caused concerns. The goal, in my judgment, has not been to purposefully spark controversy, but to do what its leaders believed to be the right thing for students and society.

That tradition goes all the way back to our founder, Revolutionary War hero Gen. William R. Davie, and his determination to establish Carolina as the nation’s first public university. His efforts represented a radical experiment in democracy. It was based on the view that a new kind of university in America could advance the state and nation. The founding fathers realized that liberty and democracy were fragile and depended upon an educated citizenry. Such thinking is why Carolina exists today, but it bucked the trends of those times.

We constantly strive to improve upon how best to remain true to Davie’s vision.

Our university is a leader at heart. That’s one way Carolina best serves both the people of North Carolina and the nation. From our founding, Carolina has stood in the vanguard – whether it was charting the path as the first public university; leading the South into a new day when some would have us maintain the status quo; or generating new knowledge in our research laboratories that will help cure diseases or create jobs and economic development.

Great leaders of this university – Frank Porter Graham, Howard Odum and Bill Friday, to name just three – have always stood up for the principles of this institution. The university’s commitment to academic freedom prevailed when the Speaker Ban Law threatened First Amendment rights and jeopardized free inquiry.

More recently, Carolina became the first major American public university to halt binding early decision admissions. That change gave prospective students and their parents more time to thoughtfully weigh all future educational options and set a principled example for other campuses to follow. Our law faculty filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court supporting the University of Michigan in its landmark affirmative action case. Language in the court’s recent opinion mirrored our faculty’s position on the unique role of a public university to train future leaders in a society that is becoming more racially and ethnically diverse. And last year we defended academic freedom and the propriety of teaching religion with proper scholarly detachment in a public university.

In that same tradition, we also have a responsibility to live up to the promise of ensuring Carolina remains a vibrant intellectual community in which all viewpoints can comfortably be expressed and heard in an atmosphere of respect. I am confident we will succeed because I know the kind of students, faculty and staff who make up our community. They are thoughtful, caring people who will take this renewed responsibility to honor each other and the integrity of our great university to heart.

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(James Moeser is chancellor of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.)