Free Republic

The consequences of Cancel Culture can be more dire than we thinkIt's been more than three years since former University of North Carolina Wilmington professor Mike Adams killed himself after being pushed into early retirement for offensive tweets. My friend David French and my colleague Robert Shibley wrote powerful articles about it at the time, but I also wanted to say my piece.I first met Mike Adams back in 2001, when he was under investigation for responding dismissively to a student who was, as Mike summarized later, “blaming the 9/11 attacks on the United States Government,” all while the rubble...

Justice Clarence Thomas pressed North Carolina’s solicitor general to explain how the University of North Carolina defines diversity during oral arguments on Monday in a Supreme Court case centered around the use of race as a factor in college admissions. “I’ve heard the word diversity quite a few times and I don’t have a clue what it means,” said Thomas. “It seems to mean everything for everyone.” Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) has challenged the race-based admissions policies of both Harvard and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), accusing both schools of discriminating against Asian-American applicants. The...

Strawbridge said the university only implemented its current policy as Jackson described until after SFFA filed its lawsuit. Jackson also noted that schools often consider students' non-race characteristics, including whether they are veterans and if they are parents, in admissions. "What you're advocating, is that in the context of a holistic review process, the university can take into account and value all of the other background and personal characteristics of other applicants, but they can't value race," Jackson added. "What I'm worried about, is that seems to me to have the potential of causing more of an equal protection problem...

Science has retracted a 2014 study on coral reefs in Fiji co-authored by Danielle Dixson of the University of Delaware, Lewes. PETE OXFORD A major controversy in marine biology took a new twist last week when the University of Delaware (UD) found one of its star scientists guilty of research misconduct. The university has confirmed to Science that it has accepted an investigative panel’s conclusion that marine ecologist Danielle Dixson committed fabrication and falsification in work on fish behavior and coral reefs. The university is seeking the retraction of three of Dixson’s papers and “has notified the appropriate federal agencies,”...

We take it for granted that people are free to use their abilities as they choose, and as a result, society as a whole benefits from their work and innovations. Progress depends on this. Today our lives are vastly better than those of our distant ancestors because individuals were free to try new ideas. For most of human history, however, there was little or no freedom for people to advance through work and innovation. Our societies were arranged in strict hierarchies where individual accomplishment wasn’t encouraged. Everyone had a place and was expected to do just as his forebears had...

By now you have heard that University of North Carolina-Wilmington professor Dr. Mike Adams has passed away. For 12 years Mike was a valued member of our Summit Ministries faculty, where he taught and mentored students on pro-life and free-speech issues. We will miss him deeply. So will all who regularly avail themselves of the freedoms secured by our Constitution. Mike’s legacy will be that of a passionate defender of the pre-born and brilliant advocate for free speech. He was one of the last great guardians of the First Amendment. Mike skillfully deployed all of the tools available to him—from...

Journalism is just one of the industries hard-hit by the economic fallout from the pandemic. While we reimagine journalism’s structures and funding models, what role might the government play in intervening to support the role of a functioning press—not just someday, but now? In a new report published by the Hussman School of Journalism and Media at the University of North Carolina, Penny Abernathy—a collaborator on our Cutback Tracker project—underlines the stakes. Since 2005, more than a quarter of the country’s newspapers have disappeared. In the same fifteen-year span, the number of local journalists working in newsrooms has dropped by...

Scientists, led by study co-author Sara Juengst at the University of North Carolina's department of anthropology, discovered the remains at a site called Salango, in Ecuador, and published their findings recently in the journal Latin American Antiquity. The researchers believe this is the only known instance of children's skulls being used as helmets for the burial of infants, and they don't know what killed the infants and children. One infant's face "looked through and out of the cranial vault" -- the space that holds the brain -- reports Live Science.

The Trump administration is threatening to cut funding for a Middle East studies program run by the University of North Carolina and Duke University, arguing that it's misusing a federal grant to advance "ideological priorities" and unfairly promote "the positive aspects of Islam" but not Christianity or Judaism.

A group of faculty, students and alums at University of North Carolina Chapel Hill are nominating Christine Blasey Ford for a Distinguished Alumna Award after she testified before a Senate panel about her sexual assault allegations against then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

A board member at the University of North Carolina is calling for a Confederate statue to be promptly reinstalled on the Chapel Hill campus after it was toppled by protesters earlier this month. Citing state law on monuments and memorials, UNC Board of Governors member Thom Goolsby said in a YouTube video that the well-known “Silent Sam” monument will be placed back on campus within 90 days.“A statue was torn down by a violent mob and the police stood by and did nothing as that happened,” Goolsby said of the Aug. 20 incident. He said that the university’s board is...

Chapel Hill, N.C. — At least seven people were arrested after a group of protesters gathered Saturday on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to demonstrate just days after the controversial Silent Sam statue was toppled. A small group began gathering on campus at about 10 a.m., and protesters chanted "no platform for white supremacists" after a man showed up in clothing reminiscent of a Confederate soldier. That man, Casey Becknell, came to the protest from Davidison County to show support for the Silent Sam statue that was torn down when about 300 people gathered...

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Police filed charges Friday against three people accused of helping tear down a century-old Confederate statue during a protest this week at North Carolina's flagship university. The charges came as a member of the University of North Carolina Board of Governors said the monument known as Silent Sam will be reinstalled on the Chapel Hill campus within 90 days, CBS Raleigh affiliate WNCN reported. Orange County District Attorney Jim Woodall confirmed to WNCN that three people face charges of misdemeanor riot and misdemeanor defacing of a public monument. The UNC police department said the three aren't affiliate...

It’s not our fault police did nothing “We do not support lawlessness.” The University of North Carolina is promising to “use the full breadth of state and University processes to hold those responsible accountable” for toppling the “Silent Sam” statue Monday night. Protesters at the destruction of the Confederate war memorial included students and professors, according to news reports. They had been agitating for its destruction for years, but grew especially incensed after the administration said it couldn’t remove the 105-year-old statue because of state law. A letter claiming to represent 17 UNC professors threatened to remove the statue themselves...

CHAPEL HILL, NC (WTVD) -- Police are investigating after someone spray-painted the words "murderer" and "black lives matter" on the "Silent Sam" Confederate memorial on the campus of UNC Chapel Hill. The statue of a Confederate Army soldier was erected on campus in 1913 as a memorial to the more than 300 UNC students who died in the Civil War. The overnight vandalism came as no surprise to the local chapter of the Sons of the Confederacy. One of its members told Eyewitness News he was actually keeping watch over the statue until about 11:00 p.m. Saturday night, expecting someone...

Videos @ link Police had arrested seven people by early Saturday afternoon, as protesters clashed at UNC-Chapel Hill five days after the toppling of the Silent Sam Confederate monument. In a media conference call later in the day, UNC Chancellor Carol Folt said she won’t be rushed into a decision about what happens next to Silent Sam. She has to keep an “eye on safety, preparing for events and identifying a sustainable solution,” Folt said. “I think we need to really look into that,” she said. “We’ve just had a lot of new information when the Historical Commission looked at...

Never in history has there been an NCAA investigation like the one that is (still) ongoing at the University of North Carolina. Now, six years after the initial investigation began, it appears that the school will finally have its day in NCAA Court on August 14th. The outcome will almost certainly have a huge impact on UNC and on college athletics – one way or the other. The basic premise of the investigation is this: During a period that might have been as long as 18 years (!!) dating from 1993, numerous Carolina athletes were involved in sham classes in...

Dear Professor Meinhold, Members of the Faculty Senate Steering Committee: It has been several weeks since I published my column “My Faculty Values and Your White Privilege” on Townhall.com. In that column, which I have linked here, I warned you about the dangers of a resolution you passed condemning faculty members for publicly commenting on the demographic characteristics of students. I specifically enumerated five problems with your statement, which was an overreaction to a free speech controversy involving a faculty member (yours truly). The problems I enumerated demonstrated that your committee did not think matters through before passing the emotionally...

A “cultural competency workshop” at the taxpayer-funded University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is assigning scores to students based on how much “white privilege” they allegedly have. The “cultural competency” workshop, which appears to be mandatory for certain students, requires participants to “examine white privilege and how it is more powerful than other types of benefits afforded by society” by completing surveys, reports Campus Reform. “I can choose blemish cover or bandages in ‘flesh’ color and have them more or less match the color of my skin,” one statement on the surveys says. Special: Melissa McCarthy Stuns Hollywood by...

AP: Group Discovers John the Baptist Cave KIBBUTZ TZUBA, Israel (AP) KARIN LAUB Archaeologists said Monday they have found a cave where they believe John the Baptist anointed many of his disciples - a huge cistern with 28 steps leading to an underground pool of water. During an exclusive tour of the cave by The Associated Press, archaeologists presented wall carvings they said tell the story of the fiery New Testament preacher, as well as a stone they believe was used for ceremonial foot washing. They also pulled about 250,000 pottery shards from the cave, the apparent remnants of small...