“Lux Libertas,” the motto of UNC-Chapel Hill, means light and liberty in Latin. The UNC System has been a means for students to think independently and critically since it was founded. Yet, the newly elected Republican Governor Pat McCrory is waging a war against the university’s tradition by proposing a new legislation to overhaul the way the UNC System is funded.
In an interview with the conservative talk show host Bill Bennett on Tuesday, McCrory said he has instructed his staff to draft a piece of legislation that would change how much state money universities and community colleges receive “not based on how many butts in the seats but how many of those butts can get jobs. ”
Apparently, McCrory is attempting to turn the state universities into vocational schools that only produce graduates with technical skills but no critical thinking ability — a lifelong skill. In the presence of the governor’s idea of funding higher education, majors and courses like history, English literature, philosophy, social work, etc. would be squeezed out of the curriculum by the incentives in the plan. Simply put, it’s a plan to shut down the liberal arts programs at North Carolina’s public universities.
From a farmer’s perspective, a liberal arts education might not be appealing, because it won’t help pick tomatoes or till the soil. But the purpose of liberal arts education is not only to prepare a student to just feed their families or generate stable income; it’s an education that primes students for a long-term career and is conducted in the spirit of inquiry and undertaken without concern with topical relevance or vocational utility.
It makes students more reflective about their beliefs and choices, more self-conscious and critical of their presuppositions and motivations, more creative in their problem-solving, more perceptive of the world around them, and better able to inform themselves about the issues that arise in everyday life — personally, professionally and socially.
College, public or private, is an opportunity to learn and reflect in an environment free from most of the constraints on time and energy that operate in the rest of life.
Contrary to the governor’s vision, a liberal arts education is about more than just getting a job. It’s about growing to be a civilized citizen armed with intellect — someone who thinks independently and critically.
McCrory also had a bone to pick with a gender studies course at UNC-CH. He told the talk show host that this is a subsidized course. “If you want to take gender studies, that’s fine. Go to a private school and take it. But I don’t want to subsidize that if that’s not going to get someone a job,” McCrory said, implying that a public university doesn’t deserve to be funded by taxpayers’ dollars if its curriculum doesn’t result in immediate employment. Yet, it’s a blunt fallacy. Under the Constitution of North Carolina and General Statute, the General Assembly created the UNC System and thus a financial obligation to fund that system.
At a public university, almost every course is subsidized by taxpayers’ money. That’s why we pay less tuition than students at private colleges.
Since the financial crisis in 2008, the state government has consistently cut funding to the UNC System, resulting in tuition skyrocketing over the past few years. If the state government is not happy with public universities, it’s convinced they should be shut down completely or sold to private owners. But cutting funds or changing the way of funding as the governor proposed has absolutely no legitimacy under the law. If so, the state government fails to fulfill a commitment to the UNC System and the people of North Carolina.