Republican Chancellor Tackles Campus Censorship

I am a conservative professor at a very progressive mid-sized public university, UNC-Wilmington. For years, I have been fighting a frustrating battle against the forces of campus censorship. In fact, I have been doing it for well over a decade. I made very little progress until the UNCW Board of Trustees hired a conservative Republican chancellor named Jose “Zito” Sartarelli.

Within weeks of assuming his duties, Sartarelli’s administration overturned an unlawful prosecution of a student for expressing his First Amendment rights. This was shortly after I helped the student get in touch with Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, or FIRE. Unlike past administrations, our conservative chancellor acted quickly and decisively when the non-partisan FIRE wrote to explain a) the general dangers associated with the conduct code the student was accused of violating and b) the specific dangers associated with prosecuting the student according to the facts of his particular case.

Given that the student was a war veteran, I was especially pleased to see that the administration ultimately defended him against a heavy-handed prosecution by administrators in the Division of Student Affairs. The speech that led to the prosecution was childish and unbecoming of a college student. But the First Amendment nonetheless protected the student’s bad speech.

About six months after that incident, I wrote a letter asking the Sartarelli administration to conduct an audit of UNCW speech policies with the help of FIRE. The reason I made the request was because I sincerely believed that our university had three separate policies, which violated the First Amendment. The letter I sent was also sent to each member of the UNCW Board of Trustees.

Within hours of sending the letter I received an encouraging reply from UNCW Trustee Dennis Burgard who is also a conservative Republican. To make matters even better, I received a phone call from Mr. Burgard within 48 hours asking how he could help the university move forward by working with FIRE.

Since that time, the speech policy audit has been completed by FIRE. I was somewhat surprised to hear that the analysis identified eight unconstitutional policies – rather than the three that were named in my letter. That bad news was trumped by some better news I received in April when it came to my attention that UNCW was working actively with FIRE to remedy all existing problems with student policies.

When I returned from spending the summer teaching and writing in Colorado, I got what is perhaps the best news I’ve ever heard concerning free speech rights at our university. Specifically, I was informed that the administration had eliminated eight of its unlawful policies and was seeking input on how to modify the ninth. This is simply a staggering achievement. In just a few short months the Sartarelli administration has done more to preserve and protect student speech than any previous UNCW administration.

The Seahawk Respect Compact is the final problematic policy, which is yet to be remedied. I understand that my university is now seeking both student and faculty input before making any changes in the compact. I understand that simply by making the compact voluntary rather than mandatory, UNCW can resolve the First Amendment issue entirely. That is good news because it means my university is probably on the verge of earning a coveted “green light” rating from FIRE. The rating is only given to universities that have no policies infringing on free speech. Presently, only 22 colleges and universities in America have earned that distinction. When UNCW is “given the green light,” so to speak, there will be two major advantages:

1. UNCW will earn praise in the court of public opinion that will translate into success in recruitment. Estimates suggest that Mizzou has lost over two thousand students in the wake of its publicly shameful assault on freedom of speech and freedom of the press – all in the name of “safety” and “inclusion.” UNCW is poised to seize a grand opportunity by attracting students who are too mature and principled to tolerate such nonsense on a university campus.
2. UNCW will see a significant upswing in external donations. In fact, just two days ago I received a phone call from an employee at a large organization in Washington D.C. He called me after a big donor contacted him with interest in investing in UNCW. The donor specifically stated that his interest was piqued by an awareness of the policy reforms happening at UNCW.

A few years ago, Republicans in North Carolina won control of the House and the Senate. Our state also elected a Republican Governor. That meant we were finally able to get a critical mass of Republicans on the UNC Board of Governors and on the individual Boards of Trustees. As soon as that happened the leftist faculty began to decry a hostile Republican takeover of the system. In fact, they suggested that the GOP would try to dismantle the UNC system altogether.

There is some truth to the accusation. The Republicans are now systematically dismantling the well-entrenched system of campus censorship. Administrators posing as principled educators built that system for decades. Unfortunately, the “liberal” faculty simply fiddled while the constitution was burning. The Republicans now have the opportunity to ride in, save the day, and justly claim credit as the party of free speech.

Of course, censorship is nothing more than intellectual bondage. That is why it will flourish as long as the party of slavery controls our public universities.

Mike S. Adams is a professor of criminology, the author of Letters to a Young Progressive, and a columnist at TownHall.com. Follow him on Twitter.