Straws in the Wind - Part 304

From the NY Times: The syllabus for SCLL 230-001, also known as “Men and Women,” describes requirements different from the typical college course. Students in the class, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, must go on a date, plan their own weddings and organize a ball (a group project). Guest speakers last fall included Chloe Cole, an activist against gender treatment for minors; Dr. William B. Hurlbut, a former White House bioethics adviser who warned about the dangers of premarital sex; and several married couples, one with a baby who was passed around to students. The class reading list includes ideas from both the right and left, and the course is billed as a chance to openly debate issues affecting the genders in the age of a “masculinity crisis in the modern West.” But some students who took the class said it tilted toward promoting traditional gender roles in dating, marriage and family life.

The class is among the offerings at the U.N.C. School of Civic Life and Leadership, one of more than 40 academic programs that have sprung up across the country as part of a movement among conservatives to combat what they see as excessive leftism on college campuses. While the centers vary in curriculum, they emphasize Western thought, America’s founders and civil discourse... But the centers have also drawn controversy and criticism, including from some initial supporters. Shiri Spitz Siddiqi, chief researcher for the nonprofit group Heterodox Academy, which released a report on the programs last year, said the centers had generated “a lot of distrust among mainstream academics.”

At U.N.C., some conservative faculty members say the program has been hypocritical. The school, they argue, is mimicking the same problems that conservatives have said are endemic to left-leaning campuses, such as applying ideological litmus tests in hiring to keep out professors who don’t fit a certain political profile...

Some students have been drawn to the school because of special financial offers. Students who pursue minors are eligible for the Libertas Scholarship, valued at $12,000 over four years. Tuition at U.N.C. is about $7,000 a year for in-state students and about $43,000 for out-of-state students. Before freshmen arrived on campus last fall, the school had offered another deal for them, even if they hadn’t signed up for the minor. “Students: we offer a $3,000 scholarship, transformational programming (including a tech-free retreat in the NC mountains), and superb faculty leadership,” the promotion read. To receive the money, students had to live in a residential “civil discourse” community — called Civ-Comm — connected to the school...

Full story at https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/30/us/politics/unc-civics-school-conservative-debate.html.