Conservative Forces Shut Down NC Poverty Center

by Goldie Taylor 

The University of North Carolina System voted to close its academic centers that focus on poverty, the environment and social justice. The UNC system operates numerous programs, which are usually designed for interdisciplinary or outreach work. Its decision to close three of those centers sparked outrage.

Supporters claim politics are at play.

“Conservatives in the state have long complained that some UNC centers (and especially the poverty center) were being used for political attacks on Republican politicians and so had no place in the university,” wrote Scott Jaschik for Inside Higher Ed.

Of the three, the university’s Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity — which was founded by former U.S. senator and presidential candidate John Edwards in 2005 — was the focus of the most heated debate. Gene Nichol, a law professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill took the helm in 2008. As president of the College of William and Mary, Nichol drew the ire of conservative alumni over his diversity and inclusion initiatives.

Jim Carmichael, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and president of the state conference of the American Association of University Professors, called the vote an attack on academic freedom. “This is completely ideological,” he said. “It sends a clear message to faculty members that our freedom of speech is endangered.”

According to Jaschik, “Jim Holmes, the head of the board panel that recommended the closure of the poverty center, denied to North Carolina reporters Wednesday that politics had anything to do with the recommendations. He and other board members have said repeatedly that they are trying to be sure centers advance the university’s mission in a cost-effective way.”

The dean of the law school at Chapel Hill, John Charles Boger, mocked the idea that politics had nothing to do with the decision to target the poverty center. He said the board’s action “would constrict [the] breath of freedom. It would order the poverty center to turn aside from investigating conditions of human misery in our state that cry out for greater attention, not less.”