Statement of UNC President Molly Corbett Broad
To the Committee on Educational Planning, Policies, and Programs
August 2002

Universities are one of the oldest, and indeed most valued institutions of modern history. They have endured over several centuries in large part because they provide a critical forum for the exchange of differing viewpoints and ideologies, the ideal training ground for an informed and enlightened citizenry.  As teachers and researchers, university faculty are expected to push the frontiers of new knowledge.  As part of their educational experience, students are expected to learn about ideas, philosophies, and practices that they have never encountered before and that may differ from their own. Such unfettered freedom of inquiry remains the very foundation of the American university.

For this reason, a staunch commitment to academic freedom is prominently articulated in the criteria for accreditation established by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), UNC’s primary accrediting body.  These criteria stipulate that university “faculty and students must be free to examine all pertinent data, question assumptions, be guided by the evidence of scholarly research, and teach and study the substance of a given discipline. … The board must not be subject to undue pressure from political, religious, or other external bodies.  Furthermore, it should protect the administration from similar pressures.”

The American Association of University Professors, academia’s largest professional association, demands similar vigilance in the protection of academic freedom and publicly censures those institutions that fail to uphold this bedrock principle.  Its statement on academic freedom and tenure reads in part:  “Institutions of higher education are conducted for the common good and not to further the interests of either the individual teacher or the institution as a whole.  The common good depends upon the free search for truth and its free exposition.  Academic freedom is essential to these purposes and applies to both teaching and research.  Freedom in research is fundamental to the advancement of truth.  Academic freedom in its teaching aspect is fundamental for the protection of the rights of the teacher in teaching and of the student to freedom in learning.  It carries with it duties correlative with rights.”

These historic values remain deeply ingrained in the University of North Carolina, the first public university in America to enroll students.  Indeed, since its creation, the UNC Board of Governors has been guided by a Code that emphatically expresses its commitment to the defense of academic freedom.  I quote from Chapter 6, Section 600, entitled “Freedom and Responsibility in the University Community.”

(1)      The University of North Carolina is dedicated to the transmission and advancement of knowledge and understanding.  Academic freedom is essential to the achievement of these purposes.  The University therefore supports and encourages freedom of inquiry for faculty members and students, to the end that they may responsibly pursue these goals through teaching, learning, research, discussion, and publication, free from internal or external restraints that would unreasonably restrict their academic endeavors.

(2)       The University and each constituent institution shall protect faculty and students in their responsible exercise of the freedom to teach, to learn, and otherwise seek and speak the truth.

(3)    Faculty and students of the University of North Carolina shall share in the responsibility for maintaining an environment in which academic freedom flourishes and in which the rights of each member of the academic community are respected.

At various times in our 200-year history, this University’s commitment to these enduring principles has been tested, most often in times of war or conflict.  We face such a test today, at a time when our nation battles terrorism and when the images of last September 11 are still painfully seared in our country’s collective memory.

UNC-Chapel Hill’s summer reading program asks all new freshmen and transfer students to read a specified book selected by a committee of faculty, staff, and students and to arrive at campus prepared to participate in small group discussions led by trained faculty and staff.  In conjunction with these discussions held one day before fall classes begin all students also are asked to write a one-page essay describing their reaction to the assigned book.  Every part of the reading program is ungraded, and there is no academic penalty for students who choose not to read the book, attend or participate in the group discussions, or submit an essay.  The sole goal of the program is to offer a shared learning experience that encourages students to think about and discuss differing points of view in a thoughtful and respectful manner.

The campus’ selection for summer 2002, Approaching the Qur’an by Michael Sells, was influenced by the attacks of 9-11 and intended to introduce students to the culture of the Middle East and to engage students on the very relevant, but little-understood topic of Islam.  However well intentioned, that choice has generated a firestorm of political, religious, and legal controversy, and it has evoked the expression of deep-seated concerns and reservations from citizens across the state and beyond. 

• Some consider the book’s selection unpatriotic, believing it infers a lack of support for U.S. military efforts and fails to show proper respect for the victims of the September 11 attacks.
• Some have expressed concern that a single religion was specified for study, to the exclusion of all others.
• Many have expressed concern that the book lacks proper balance, since it fails to examine certain violent factions of the Islam religion.
• Some have questioned why students who might object to the book on religious or other grounds were not offered alternative reading options.
• Still others question the campus’ judgment in selecting a book that is so complex that it requires elucidation by knowledgeable faculty.  They find it particularly troublesome that such a text was assigned to entering freshmen who are less experienced in critical thinking.

As individuals, we may agree or disagree with these varying perspectives and still respect the thoughtful views of others.  But as leaders entrusted with the oversight and governance of one of the very finest public universities in the nation, we have a clear duty to uphold and passionately defend the right of faculty on every UNC campus to define the curriculum, to examine and to debate ideas however popular or unpopular those choices might be, and however much the State’s non-university leaders may agree or disagree with a specific campus decision.

The historic tenets of academic freedom set forth in the Code still define this University.  And they are as important and as relevant today as when they were adopted by the very first Board of Governors.  If we allow them to be diminished, we inflict irreparable harm to the academic stature and reputation of the entire University.  For all of these reasons, I urge you to adopt for consideration by the full Board a resolution that reaffirms without reservation this University’s long-standing policy in support of academic freedom.

Return to Issues Page