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 Closed Minds Leads to Unacceptable Educations
by Tom Campbell
December 5, 2006
The hypocrisy in our universities has become almost laughable. A recent story reported that a faculty group at NC State University spoke unfavorably about receiving a potential gift from the John William Pope Foundation because of the donors’ conservative political beliefs and the fear those beliefs might pervade their campus. It was less than a year ago that UNC Chapel Hill refused a large grant from the same donor to support a program in Western culture, for much the same reasons.
These are the same universities that have absolutely no shame in accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in support from shoe companies that use cheap labor in third world counties. These same institutions have no compunction about taking huge sums from TV networks that often run ads of scantily clad women promoting sex, romanticize violence, and make millionaire heroes out of supposed college students who play before their cameras. These same schools have no disgust in allowing booster clubs to dictate campus policies, pay coaches more than their presidents earn, and subsequently fire the coaches when they don’t perform as the boosters desire.
That these professors have suddenly become concerned about outside influences impacting their campuses would be amusing were it not so sad. It doesn’t matter that their own campus leaders can report that previous gifts from the same family and foundation have not resulted in any undue influence being sought or exercised. The professors don’t want to hear this. They are too narrow-minded to accept any belief system that isn’t the same as theirs. If their ideologies are so pure and so correct, shouldn’t they be able to stand up in honest and open debate? We likely won’t know because it won’t happen.
The plain truth is that the biases of professors on our campuses speak more loudly than their words. They claim their universities are places of learning where differing viewpoints are exposed and discussed. The evidence increasingly points to a far different reality, where liberal viewpoints are the ones accepted and heard, where moderates are barely tolerated and conservatives are not allowed. Students quickly get the message to spew back to these professors what they want to hear in order to get a grade.
The refusal to earnestly consider a gift from an individual or organization that leans conservative says more about the professors than it does the foundation. It also speaks about an organization that would allow such action. That message should be unacceptable to the citizens of North Carolina.
There are still some who remember a conservative legislature that passed the Speaker Ban Law in the sixties, denying those with communist sympathies the right to appear on our campuses. Fortunately, open minds saw that as wrong and forced a change in that law, opening our colleges to differing ideas. The same is needed now.
We advocate neither conservative nor liberal doctrine. We care less about the gift being considered than the message being sent by the faculty. Teaching close-minded approaches to this world will not take us into twenty-first century excellence. Our universities deserve fresh air and open minds, starting with those who refuse to allow open debate on issues.
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