Campus Conservatives Demand Real Diversity

The students, who earlier this year formed a group called the Committee for a Better Carolina, have a broader agenda. They say conservative students are uncomfortable and intimidated on a campus that is overwhelmingly liberal, and they want the university to commit to big changes.

First, they will ask Moeser to include political affiliation and ideology in the university's official nondiscrimination policy. They also want the university to devote more money to bring in speakers from a wider variety of ideological perspectives. And they want the university to conduct an investigation into the campus climate for conservatives -- similar to the study conducted last year on the atmosphere for gay students.

Finally, the students want the university to apply its standards of diversity to recruiting more conservative professors. The group will present statistics -- department by department -- that show that only a tiny minority of UNC-CH professors are registered Republicans.

"It's like the conservative point of view isn't legitimate. It's not even considered," said Michael McKnight, a senior journalism and mass communications and public policy major from Roanoke Rapids, who is president of the committee.

Moeser has said he welcomes the new conservative activism on campus and invited the students to meet with him to discuss their concerns.

The committee formed in response to anti war protests in the spring. The students set up tables in "the Pit," UNC-CH's lunchtime gathering spot, and collected 1,200 signatures in support of U.S. troops and the "liberation of Iraq." The group took out an ad in the student newspaper supporting the war.

This summer, the group got more ambitious. It took on the university's freshman reading assignment of "Nickel and Dimed," a book by Barbara Ehrenreich that chronicles the struggles of low-wage workers. With thousands of dollars donated by the conservative John William Pope Foundation, the students bought a full-page ad blasting the book in The News & Observer. The committee also held a news conference at the General Assembly attended by more than a dozen legislators.

The crusade prompted critics to say the students were manipulated by a small number of right-wing conservatives looking to attack the university. But the students say this is their issue and that it goes to the heart of their education.

McKnight is also state chairman of the N.C. Federation of College Republicans, which includes 2,000 members on 22 campuses across the state. He rattles off examples of what he says is a liberal bias that permeates the UNC-CH campus.

As a conservative columnist for the campus paper, McKnight was flooded with angry e-mail messages when he wrote that the university should give an honorary degree to former U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms. In the past decade, he said, none of the university's commencement speakers has been Republican or conservative. Last year, five professors at UNC-CH's law school boycotted an appearance by conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

"That's the ultimate example of faculty intolerance," McKnight said, sipping an orangeade in a Franklin Street drug store, his cell phone chirping every few minutes.

It's unclear how much influence the group will have among UNC-CH students. When pressed about membership in the new committee, McKnight said he doesn't have firm numbers but he knows of 50 to 60 interested students. The group will continue recruiting efforts this fall.

"This is a fringe group even among the conservatives on campus," said Dan Harrison, president of the UNC-CH Young Democrats. "It was very clear their tantrum over the reading program did not find broad support among the students."

The group does have powerful political connections. McKnight was an intern with Helms last summer, and he has volunteered for the campaigns of U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole and other prominent Republicans. He is in close contact with Joey Stansbury, a UNC-CH alumnus who works for Variety Wholesalers, a business run by the Pope family, and is chairman of the statewide Young Republicans group.

McKnight, a clean-cut, red-haired 21-year-old, is pictured with campaign workers on a newsletter of state Sen. Virginia Foxx, a Banner Elk Republican and frequent critic of UNC-CH.

Foxx described McKnight and his fellow conservative activists as bright kids who have raised a legitimate issue with the university.

"They've been respectful," she said. "They know what they're talking about, and they do their homework."

UNC-CH has long had conservative groups. A decade ago, conservative activists fought the university's planned black cultural center. They also were known for high-profile pranks -- a water balloon "scud" attack on Persian Gulf War protesters, for example.

The current crop of conservative activists seems to have been taken more seriously.

"These students eat, drink and sleep politics," said Norman Hurley, assistant professor of political science and faculty adviser for the group. "They are very highly politically astute."

Hurley, a Republican, said there may not be a new wave of conservatism on campus, but he has heard plenty of complaints from students about the lack of political balance in the classroom.

"Most people who go into political science are of a liberal persuasion," he said. "Most of them deliberately or inadvertently wind up equipping students with their world view."

Tripp Costas, president of UNC-CH's College Republicans, said a graduate student teaching assistant in the English department sent an e-mail message to him and his classmates during the spring, encouraging them to walk out of class as part of an anti war protest.

"There are a lot of professors who do a great job," said Costas, who also is a member of the Committee for a Better Carolina. "But some professors are pushing a social agenda in the classroom rather than presenting a subject objectively with equal time for both sides."

"This is a fringe group even among the conservatives on campus," said Dan Harrison, president of the UNC-CH Young Democrats

So the press goes to a Democrat for an opinion on Conservatives ?

This young comservatives are doing a great job. The issue IS diversity - diversity of THOUGHT.

What a concept for a university.

These kids are doing wonderful work! Imagine, Moeser having to defend himself.....imagine, Moeser having to SIT in the same room with conservatives!!! Wonder how many years it's been?

UNC-CH has always been at the forefront of "radical" conservative activism....and it's GREAT!

For anyone who is not a student, and who wants to help out, you should consider how you could help these great kids!

ALSO, you should send an email to Norman Hurley, their faculty advisor, WHO DOES NOT HAVE TENURE, AND IT PUTTING HIS OWN NECK FOR THEM..........IF HE DOES NOT GET TENURE, HOW CAN UNC REFUTE ITS BIAS AGAINST CONSERVATIVES?

McKnight, a clean-cut, red-haired 21-year-old, is pictured with campaign workers on a newsletter of state Sen. Virginia Foxx, a Banner Elk Republican and frequent critic of UNC-CH.

Oops. I was really pulling for the kid until this point.

I can't figure out why Virginia would have problems with UNC-CH. They all seem to believe the same things she does. Her last name should be a good clue, because someone has certainly let her loose in the hen house.

Actually, I'm still pulling for the kid. I'd love to see the look on some of the diversity-nazis' faces when he comes around. They have no choice but to accept his views and give him a platform. He has taken a cue from Ann Coulter and fights liberals with their own weapons.

Way to go, Mr. McKnight

All right, I think I'm gonna get it for this one, but I have some problems with these guys (and remember, I've spent the last five years on this campus as a grad student). Conservatives spend so much time railing against minority programs on campus and elsewhere, how can we take on the mantle of a minority group and play the same disgusting games they do? I remember that study about how gays felt they were treated on campus, and was disgusted by it. It's not the place of the administrators to make everyone feel good about themselves, and I feel the same way about conservative students. Since I don't approve of hiring professors on the basis of their sexuality (which is sometimes done) or their gender, I'm certainly not going to approve of a university hiring conservatives just to even out the ranks (not that it's even possible - the number of conservatives in academia is miniscule). What I do agree with is evening up funding for conservative student organizations on campus. The student government hasn't exactly looked as kindly on them as they have some prominent liberal groups, and it's hurt the conservatives' effort to get good speakers on campus. They just can't afford to match the multitude of liberals paraded in every year by organizations like Young Democrats, the LGBT groups, the BSM, etc.

This is from the John Locke Foundation (www.johnlocke.org):

Nickel and ... dumb

Posted by Jon Sanders at 10:55 AM

In a News & Observer op-ed, UNC-CH Prof. Andrew J. Perrin suggests the campus "marginalization of conservatives" isn't that big a deal. And (take note, you conservatives!): "As reasonable citizens, we should be prepared to shift our thinking in the face of new evidence and different points of view."

In other words, you conservatives shouldn't kvetch about being subjected to a constant stream of leftist ideology -- it might just change your minds! Besides, y'all are losers anyway: "Conservative students' accusations of discrimination are, quite simply, evidence that they are losing in the marketplace of ideas."

A marketplace? OK, let's run with the analogy. The conservatives' complaint amounts to this: the government has set up a monopoly instead of allowing competition; i.e., this contest of ideas is fixed.

Perrin also wrongly suggests the Committee for a Better Carolina doesn't "engag[e], honestly and openly, in the exchange of ideas." Check out their web site (e.g., click on the "flip side" link). I'd say they do a heckuva lot better job at it than Perrin.

I would agree with you, except that if we keep "playing fair", we are going to become more and more obscure and liberals will continue to gain ground. It's time to beat them at their own game. I used to debate liberal friends fairly too and they would get emotional, now I throw a bit in of that myself too practically accusing them of wanting to hurt my family for homeschooling, being a certain ethnicity, Christians, etc. You know what, it works. You know why, because it's how they operate--they are emotional creatures and are intimidated by emotion as well. Liberals think with feelings so the only real way I've found to get them is to strike at them where they feel and not where they think(which is not a functioning place to begin with;-)
The logical arguments get them mad and they think conservatives are in fact mean. The emotional arguments stop them in their tracks everytime and I think is what it takes to start moving them into the realm of the logical.

As a recovering liberal for nearly 10 years, I have to say it was the emotional that first got me reading more conservative writers and listening to more conservative forums like talk radio. My start was with abortion. I needed to see those graphic pictures to stir my heart and then I could address the issue with my head(as a liberal at the time). I needed to see the emotions involved back then, not the logical arguments of when life begins or Biblical claims.

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