The “hits” keep on coming from Raleigh this week. First is was the LGBT issue and Charlotte, and now this, from “Alternet”, March 25, 2016:
How a 'Campus Free Expression Act' in North Carolina Actually Aims to Suppress Student Speech
News came on March 7 that North Carolina’s Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Forest will propose the deceivingly named Campus Free Expression Act at the state legislature next month. The act instructs the University of North Carolina’s Board of Governors to craft a systemwide policy that would impose harsh penalties, including expulsion, on students, staff and faculty members who disrupt classes, public meetings or events.
(Bold emphasis is mine)
This proposal appears to be a reaction to recent student protests at UNC Board of Governors meetings over forced closings of academic centers and the recent appointment of for-profit education proponent Margaret Spellings as the university system president.
The act also charges the Board of Governors to establish a “Committee of Free Speech” that would produce an annual report and commit the university system to remain neutral on social and political issues.
Conservative media including the Carolina Journal and the Koch-funded Generation Opportunity have extolled the proposal on the basis of alleged free speech protections. But is the bill protecting everyone’s speech?
The 32-member UNC Board of Governors, appointed by the GOP-led state legislature and Republican governor, faced scrutiny last year after voting to shutter three campus centers unpopular with conservatives: a poverty center at UNC-Chapel Hill, a biodiversity center at East Carolina University and a civic engagement institute at the historically black North Carolina Central University.
(Once again bold is mine)
Next, the board ousted popular system president Tom Ross without explanation and replaced him with the controversial Spellings, while inflating her salary. Conservative politicians cheered the exit of Ross, a Democrat, whose successor was an education secretary under George W. Bush who then served on the boards of a student loan collection agency and the parent company of for-profit education chain University of Phoenix.
Students from UNC-Chapel Hill and other campuses have asked for student, faculty and staff representation on the board to no avail. One student serves as an honorary member with no voting privileges, and faculty and staff have no seats. The students wanted a role in hiring the next system president, but their requests were ignored by the board members, who are often political donors and mostly Republicans.
UNC-Chapel Hill senior Shannon Brien, who is active with the Chapel Hill BOG Coalition, which, along with other groups, has led protests at board meetings, believes that “none of these people have any experience in education.”
“The board has no legitimacy in our eyes,” she said. “These political appointees aren’t really accountable to students, faculty or staff, the real stakeholders in our education system. We are frustrated with their decisions, many of which are focused on turning the system into a private enterprise, a business model instead of a public institution.”
http://www.alternet.org/print/activism/how-campus-free-expression-act-north-carolina-actually-aims-suppress-student-speech
Why do Tea Bag/Republicans hate Americans, and our values so much?
I hate to cut, paste, and run, but I will be back for comments….
Be safe out there….