Despite a flurry of dialogue in December regarding a possible grant from the John William Pope Foundation, members of the University faculty have gone silent. The foundation has previously given grants to N.C. State and other higher education institutions in North Carolina.

Toby Parcel, dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, met with Art Pope, president of the foundation, at the end of last semester to explore the possibility of receiving a grant. Parcel received opposition in meeting with her faculty members, who voiced their opinions on the possibility of accepting money from the foundation.

Pope said he had a lunch meeting with Parcel and was surprised the meeting “roused any criticism with some of State’s faculty.”

According to Pope, the University did not submit a formal proposal, but the foundation is open to any suggestions or requests.

“Our policy has always been to let the University initiate the proposal,” he said.

Parcel was not available for comment after several attempts to reach her, including one cancelled interview. After several other attempts to make a new appointment via phone calls and visits to her office, Parcel could not be reached.

Cat Warren, associate professor of English and director of the Women’s and Gender Studies program, was opposed to the possibility of a grant, but was also unavailable for comment after the Technician called her several times, left her two voice-mail messages and tried to contact her by e-mail.

Warren, however, commented in a Dec. 8 News and Observer “Point of View” column.

“We feel that the Pope Foundation, unlike many other foundations, has a mission that is directly inimical to the values of our public universities,” she wrote.

In a letter to Wendell Murphy, the chairman of the NCSU Board of Trustees, Chancellor James L. Oblinger and Erskine Bowles, UNC System Board of Governors president, Pope responded to negative comments from University faculty members including Sheila Smith McKoy, head of diversity studies, David Auerbach, assistant professor of philosophy, David Ambaras, associate professor of history, and Warren.

“While I am obviously offended by these unwarranted and malicious attacks, it is the students of NCSU who suffer the greatest loss when dogmatic faculty members thwart educational opportunities supported by voluntary private funding,” Pope stated in his letter.

The Technician also contacted Auerbach who called funding from the Pope Foundation “dirty money” in a News and Observer article published Dec. 5. However, when the Technician approached him after receiving no response to an e-mail and failing to reach him in his office by phone several times, he refused to comment on the Pope Foundation and attributed his silence to previous “bad reporting.”

In a story in the Independent Weekly, published Dec. 6, McKoy compared taking money from the Pope Foundation to taking money from the Ku Klux Klan and the Nation of Islam.

At the BOG meeting on Jan. 12, Oblinger said he felt Parcel handled the situation well by discussing the possibility of a grant with her faculty. He said he did not attend the meetings, but received Pope’s letter detailing his point of view.

“I’ve seen a lot of dialogue and that’s what we’re all about,” Oblinger said.

According to Oblinger, the University deals with foundations all the time, and this situation is not unique.

“This is not atypical behavior to have a discussion on who may fund a particular unit,” he said.

Oblinger said he applauds Parcel for her openness about having a discussion.

He said the whole situation is a “two way street in terms of freedom of speech” and that the faculty can choose who will support their endeavors as the Pope Foundation can choose which institutions it will support.

According to Andrew Taylor, associate professor of political science, in 2004, the University accepted a $511,500 grant from the Pope Foundation over a period of five years that would help support the Department of Economics and Department of Political Science and Public Administration programs.

Oblinger said the University did not receive any negative attention from this grant.

“I haven’t heard anybody ranting and raving because of that [grant] because I think it was well understood by all parties involved,” he said.

Every grant situation, Oblinger said, is different, and the faculty as well as the Pope Foundation have a right to voice their opinions.

Jim Phillips, chairman of the UNC Board of Governors, said at the BOG meeting that he does not know much about the NCSU-specific controversy in regards to the Pope Foundation, but that he is aware of a similar situation that occurred at UNC- Chapel Hill where some faculty were wary of accepting a grant from the foundation.

According to a UNC-CH press release, the foundation will donate more than $2.3 million to help support UNC’s football program and students studying Western cultures over a three-year period.

The Technician also approached Larry Nielsen, provost and executive vice-chancellor, who did not comment and referred the Technician to Keith Nichols, director of news and communications at the University.