Diversity at Chapel Hill

Cary, N. C.—While the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill funds “diversity” policies that result in “liberal” teachers sending hate mail to conservative Christian students, the school’s College Republicans have, arguably, a roster of members more representative of the student body.

“You’ve got administrators at UNC-Chapel Hill enforcing ‘diversity policies,’ some of them making six figures,” graduating senior Michael McKnight said at a conference here earlier this month. McKnight headed the UNC chapter of the College Republicans until his recent graduation.

The manner in which the UNC establishment defines diversity is itself rather uniformly one-sided. As Vani Murthy reported on this site in March, an English teacher who encouraged her students to share their views on homosexuality, reacted to one who relayed a negative reaction with an even more vehement e-mail. As Murthy reported:

During the 30-minute discussion, one particular student named “Tim” raised his hand. “I don’t think that men feel threatened either,” he said, “threatened is probably the wrong word to say.” He went on to say that as a Christian he would “feel uncomfortable having to explain to my son at a baseball game why two homosexual men are kissing.” Tim also spoke about an incident in which one of his close friends who is also heterosexual received a love letter from a homosexual man, and that as a result his friend felt “disgusted and dirty.”…

Professor Crystal sent out a mass email concerning this particular discussion. Here is how the email went: “Let me start off my [sic] saying that I apologize to all of you for not having made clear the first day of classes what I will make clear here and now: that I will not tolerate any racist, sexist, and/or heterosexist comments in my class. What we heard Thursday at the end of class constitutes ‘hate speech’ and is completely unacceptable. It has created a hostile environment. I am deeply sorry and apologize to those of us who are now feeling that the classroom we share is an unsafe environment, for those of us who feel vulnerable or threatened. I will do my best to counter those feelings and protect that space from further violence.”

Although school officials publicly upbraided Crystal for taking this action, the administrators’ reaction, in turn, stemmed from the public outcry over the professor’s treatment of the student. Left to their own devices, the powers that be at UNC opt for the liberal answer to every question—from whom to choose for a commencement speaker to what to require for course reading.

• The commencement speaker at UNC-Chapel Hill this year was Julius Chambers, the attorney who argued before the Supreme Court in favor of judicially mandated busing.

• The school has an official Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Office. This office offers services to LGBT students as well as helpful advice. For example, they warn: “An ideal ally is someone who … uses gender neutral terms, such as partner or significant other, instead of gender specific terms like boyfriend or girlfriend.”

• Last year, the University chose the inflammatory class-struggle opus Nickel and Dimed for its summer reading program.

By contrast, the College Republicans at UNC-Chapel Hill boast 800 members. Their faculty advisor is an African-American conservative.

Malcolm A. Kline is the executive director of Accuracy in Academia.