I simply don?t know how to improve on the actual text of this story in today?s Herald Sun about the whole Pope Foundation/Western Studies/academic freedom furor at UNC-Chapel Hill:
Reid Barbour, an English professor who chaired the committee that created the Western cultures proposal, called some of the Pope Center’s criticisms “hostile” and “vicious.” He would like the university to insist to the Pope Foundation that if the gift is to be accepted, the Pope Center should have to dial down the criticism.
“I think the faculty wants to see the administration go to them and say ‘this has to stop,’ ” he said. “Criticism is one thing, hostility is another.”
William Race, a classics professor, said the university cannot accept money from the Pope Foundation if the Pope policy center continues lobbying its criticism toward Chapel Hill.
“It is so anti-intellectual, it’s not worth responding to,” he said of the Pope Center’s writings. “But by taking money from the very foundation that funds it, we’re giving them a platform.”
OK, I lied. I do have something to add. What is academic freedom?
