UNC’s SCiLL will provide students with an intellectually rich education

Within Higher EdThe recent story “Has Chapel Hill’s School of Civic Life” Become a Conservation Center?” (Dec. 11, 2024) at UNC Chapel Hill’s School of Civic Life and Leadership (SCiLL) missed a great opportunity to explain to your students that what does the new democratic school teach, how is it taught, and what do its students think about it.

Instead of providing an insightful insider’s view of higher education at Chapel Hill, the essay’s more than 3,500 words presented outside voices rehashing old, ill-informed arguments about the establishment and SCiLL’s mockery of its intellectual makeup.

That would be like another news outlet publishing a 3,500-word profile of an IHE that noted who works there, where they go to college, and how the organization is funded, while saying nothing about what courses the IHE covers, how it covers them, and how. subscribers check it out.

The IHE story is noted by the SCiLL division: “the initiative has hired professors with similar backgrounds – including a few who have expressed sharp political views.”

Oh, Nelly! Found like-minded professors at Chapel Hill? With sharp political views? Say no!

Progressives in academia and the media may treat conservative and centrist academics like zoo animals — to be watched from afar, securely locked away, and in small numbers — but those students contribute to the richness of education. everything students, including liberals.

For everyone to thrive, surely intellectual diversity is as important as any other form of diversity at a taxpayer-funded institution of higher education, especially one as prestigious and ambitious as the University of North Carolina.

Former Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz himself said of SCiLL’s important role: “As a premier national university, UNC-CH has a responsibility to be a place that brings together people of diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives to debate the issues of our day.”

Hear! And here’s hoping you show up next time.

Matthew Eisley is a freelance political communications consultant and former journalist. He is a member of the UNC-CH Board of Visitors.