Join UNC AFSA in promoting free speech, academic freedom, and viewpoint diversity at UNC. Sign up for our newsletter: https://teapawt.net/t.co/zitRVRB2q9
Joined August 2022
- Tweets417
- Following159
- Followers245
- Likes369
Raleigh area alumni and friends of UNC Chapel Hill, join us for this event on November 12. The evening is free but please register here. 4agc.com/event/converstion-w…
🤖 Made with AI
Reminder of next week's event featuring UNC graduate Dr. Carol Swain, who will speak on Diversity without Discrimination: How to Promote Unity in a post-DEI World. Tuesday at 5pm in the Student Union Auditorium.
Some disappointing news. UNC Chapel Hill drops in the annual FIRE Free Speech rankings. Read more here. mailchi.mp/395630244a81/uncb… @TheFIREorg
We agree! Last year we recommended @UNC require a similar statement on all syllabi. Too many students self-censor. They need to be encouraged to speak out & feel confident they can do so without reprisal. In every class.
With the new academic year approaching, I encourage professors who teach on controversial matters to include on their syllabi a statement like the one I include on mine:
"As set forth in Rights, Rules, Responsibilities section 1.1.3, Princeton University strictly respects the right to free speech of everyone in our community of scholars and learners. That right is sacrosanct in this class and is possessed by faculty and students alike. With the aim of advancing and deepening everyone’s understanding of the issues addressed in the course, students are urged to speak their minds, explore ideas and arguments, play devil’s advocate, and engage in civil but robust discussions. There is no thought or language policing. We expect students to do business in the proper currency of intellectual discourse—a currency consisting of reasons, evidence, and arguments—but no ideas or positions are out of bounds."
UNC AFSA retweeted
UNC Chapel Hill did everything the reformers asked for on paper. Institutional neutrality. A new School of Civic Life. The death of its DEI office. So why is the place still run by social-justice activists?
Because policy doesn't matter if personnel doesn't change. And at Chapel Hill, the personnel never changed.
Told to scrap DEI course requirements, the school just renamed "Difference, Power, and Inequality" to "Power and Society." It kept the same catalog: "Queering China," "Global Whiteness," "Feminist Geographies."
It closed its Diversity & Inclusion office, then put its former DEI czar in charge of ADMISSIONS. At the university whose name is on the SFFA decision.
The new provost, Magnus Egerstedt, ran a UC Irvine engineering school hit with a civil-rights complaint over explicit racial quotas. His first move at UNC?Trying to hire a self-described "postcolonial marxist feminist" who hasn't published a book in 17 years. The trustees blocked it.
The official overseeing faculty hiring calls meritocracy a "fallacy" and racism "the fabric of our country."
The UNC Chapel Hill Board of Trustees sees these problems but they no longer have the power to act. In 2024, UNC System President Peter Hans stripped the board of its authority to veto senior administrative appointments. Hires like Egerstedt's now rest with the chancellor and Hans alone.
The UNC Chapel Hill Board of Trustees' authority to veto senior appointments should be restored. That is the best way to align personnel with trustee policy. Hans revoked it but the Board of Governors for the entire university system and the General Assembly both have the power to restore it.
@ManhattanInst's @JohnDSailer for @cityjournal city-journal.org/article/uni…
Memorial Day is a good time to revisit Bill Friday's remarks at the dedication of the Carolina Alumni Memorial. "We believe in freedom and liberty and are willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to make freedom and liberty secure for all people. The 684 lives we memorialize brought you and me to the special moment in independence that we so cherish. Here and now, you and I can do no less than rededicate our lives, our energy and our strength to make sure, very sure, that in our time, our generation will have done its part, done our very best to make this democracy worthy of the sacrifices of those we honor."
alumni.unc.edu/news/remarks-…
UNC AFSA retweeted
Why does viewpoint diversity matter and how can it be practiced?
HxA's regional conference is focused on this question and kicking off with a keynote from @DanielDiermeier, the Chancellor of Vanderbilt University.
UNC AFSA retweeted
UNC’s response to Daily Tar Heel mock headlines proves that the battle for free speech on campus isn’t yet won.
jamesgmartin.center/2026/04/…
UNC AFSA retweeted
Free speech for all—especially the voices we disagree with. 💬 A new piece dives into the ongoing debate over expression and accountability on campus.
Read More:
ow.ly/j0Vj50YOOU3
Many thanks to Senior Political Correspondent @ByronYork who enlightened our Annual Dinner audience last night with insights into the events of the day. This is our 5th Anniversary and we stay as involved and relevant as ever focused on our mission to promote and defend free speech, academic freedom, and viewpoint diversity at UNC-Chapel Hill.
UNC retreats from statement that violated its free speech and institutional neutrality policies
Earlier this week, UNC AFSA condemned a statement released last week by Senior Vice President James Orr regarding several campus April Fools communications. (Read our statement here.) We joined other free speech supporting organizations, most notably the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (@TheFIREorg ), in calling for the University to retract Orr’s statement and reaffirm its support for student free expression.
Yesterday, UNC did just that.
In an update to the student affairs website, the University declared its commitment “to upholding the First Amendment rights of our students and student groups to engage in free expression.” It confirmed that it “is not investigating any student or student group” and explained that it “in no way intended to chill free speech on our campus.” The university then reiterated that “We support the First Amendment rights of all students and student groups to exercise those rights unburdened by the University. As a public university, we will both uphold the core principle of free speech and care for our community at the same time.”
The University now needs to post its update to its social media platforms and email the update to the University listserv to ensure all students and faculty receive the message. The original statement carried the full weight and visibility of the administration. A quiet website update will do little to mitigate the chilling effect the University created.
Nonetheless, we applaud the administration for heeding the calls for retraction. This is a good first step in reestablishing an environment in which students feel free to express their opinions.
We would have liked to see the University go on to apologize to the students whose speech they had castigated. In the wake of the University’s original statement, those students reportedly have received multiple death threats and may be facing career repercussions. There is a lesson there: when emotions run high about controversial subjects, the administration’s role is to act as a calming influence. It certainly should not inflame the situation.
Thank you to Chancellor Roberts and others who are working to realign the University with its model policies protecting the free speech of students and faculty and restraining the administration from inserting itself into the campus debate. We hope this mistake will be addressed with concrete steps to avoid a recurrence.
UNC AFSA’s mission is straightforward: To promote and defend free speech, academic freedom, and viewpoint diversity at UNC-Chapel Hill. We will continue to be vigilant in pursuing those principles.
UNC AFSA retweeted
Just now, @UNC-Chapel Hill updated its problematic statement, specifically retracting its announced investigation into satirical student speech.
UNC deserves credit for addressing FIRE’s concerns and acknowledging that its initial response to the @DailyTarHeel’s April Fool’s edition and "Hill After Hours" video chilled speech on campus.
Today’s clarification and retraction is a step in the right direction. While the university’s earlier statement may have chilled speech, its follow-up begins to reverse that damage by reaffirming UNC’s obligation to protect even unpopular or provocative expression.
FIRE applauds UNC’s decision to uphold the First Amendment.
FIRE is deeply troubled by @UNC’s decision to condemn satire and announce an investigation into protected student expression.
The @dailytarheel, which is editorially and financially independent from the university, published satirical April Fool’s articles with headlines like “Trump Orders Alcohol Law Enforcement in Chapel Hill Replaced with ICE Agents” and “UNC Brings Back DEI-For Whites.”
After calls for takedowns from student groups and the student body president, the paper took the articles down and its editor-in-chief apologized.
Hill After Hours, a separate registered student group, also posted and deleted a TikTok sketch satirizing a stereotypical white student walking through an area of campus where predominantly students of color have historically lived.
In response, Senior Vice Provost James Orr issued a university statement condemning the satirical content and announced the university was investigating Hill After Hours.
That is not the role of a public university. Students and student journalists do not lose their First Amendment rights because their speech is offensive, unpopular, or badly received. Critics are free to answer with more speech. UNC is not free to answer it with condemnation and investigation.
UNC-Chapel Hill’s response also raises serious concerns under North Carolina law, which requires UNC System institutions to remain neutral on “the political controversies of the day.” A university cannot claim neutrality while taking an official side against protected student expression.
UNC-Chapel Hill must retract its statement and end the investigation. Offense is not license to police protected expression.
UNC AFSA retweeted
A society cannot preserve liberties it no longer understands.
In my latest for @RestoringWest, I argue that students are often exercising First Amendment rights without knowing the Western legal and intellectual traditions that made those rights possible.
ayaan.restoringthewest.com/s…