UNC’s Diversity Challenge. Though popular diversity categories have their place, the real win is a heterodox intellectual climate on campus.

James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal ^ | July 15, 2024 | Mark McNeilly

[karpov]

Should UNC-Chapel Hill, the flagship university of North Carolina, represent the diversity of the state? That is a question that seems to be on many minds. Because diversity does offer benefits, such as exposure to different cultures, interaction with others from different backgrounds, and opportunity for everyone, the answer usually comes back as an emphatic “yes.” And, of course, Carolina is known here as “the university of the people.”

However, to thoughtfully answer the question, one must ask, “Represent the diversity of the state in terms of what? Ethnicity? Gender? Sexual orientation? Economic class? Viewpoint?”

Depending on their politics, I’d assert that different groups want some types of diversity at UNC but not others. I imagine those on the left desire ethnic diversity but would be reluctant to bring in large numbers of conservative professors to increase the UNC faculty’s political diversity. Meanwhile, those on the right would likely hesitate to surrender trustee and governor board seats to liberals, given that they see those bodies as balancing the faculty’s politics.

[nopardons]

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