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Debate begins over book assignmentHere we go again For the third straight year, UNC-Chapel Hill's freshman reading assignment is igniting hot debate. But this time, it is happening even before the book is picked. related  How should UNC make its decision on a freshman reading selection? the search for balance This year the reading committee started with 500 suggestions, from the Bible to Nabokov's "Lolita." to "Dude, Where's My Country," by Michael Moore. PREVIOUS PICKS Freshman summer reading list selections at UNC-CH for the past five years: 1999: "There Are No Children Here" by Alex Kotlowitz 2000: "Confederates in the...

In one of the presidential debates earlier this year, ABC's Peter Jennings asked candidate John Edwards, "...[M]any people, I think, believe that the greatest security threat to the United States in the 21st century is the possible confrontation between the West and Islam ... Could you take a minute to tell us what you know about the practice of Islam that would reassure Muslims throughout the world who will be listening to you that President Edwards understands their religion and how you might use that knowledge to avoid a confrontation ...?" Edwards responded, in part, "I would never claim to...

This article by David Horowitz and the two following (Sarah Habel's "Students for Academic Freedom: A New Campus Movement" and Stanley Fish's "Voice of the Opposition") all appeared in The Chronicle of Higher Education. They represent the ongoing debate over Horowitz's Academic Bill of Rights and fight for intellectual freedom in our institutions of higher learning - The Editors. *I am the author of the Academic Bill of Rights, which many student governments, colleges and universities, education commissions, and legislatures are considering adopting. Already, the U.S. House of Representatives has introduced a version as legislation, and the Senate should soon...

Campus Conservatives Demand Real DiversityBy Jane StancillNewsObserver.com | August 18, 2003 Conservative students who unleashed the protest against UNC-Chapel Hill's reading program will sit down today with Chancellor James Moeser, but they won't be debating "Nickel and Dimed." 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....

Is it reasonable for a university to insist that campus Christian groups accept non-Christian or anti-Christian students as group leaders? Ask a hundred ordinary Americans and you would very likely get 99 or 100 noes. Ask Rutgers University, though, and you'd get an answer that would earn a summa cum laude for political correctness. In September, Rutgers banned a Christian group from using campus facilities and stripped the group of university funding because it selects leaders on the basis of religious belief. Rutgers is punishing the InterVarsity Multi-Ethnic Christian Fellowship for violating the university's nondiscrimination policy. That policy states that...

Cosby to deliver UNC-CH commencement address Sep 16 11:09 - AP - AP Wire Service CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) _ Comedian Bill Cosby will deliver the spring commencement address at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, scheduled for May 18. ``Although he is perhaps best known for his humor and innovations as a performer and actor, Mr. Cosby also has earned well-deserved recognition and national prominence as an educator and humanitarian,'' Chancellor James Moeser said. ``His longtime personal interest in and support of education is noteworthy, and his message will be one of inspiration for our graduates as...