In 1986, The John William Pope Foundation was founded as a private institution that would provide significant money for grants at local universities in North Carolina, including N.C. State.

Specifically in 2004, NCSU accepted a grant that exceeded a little more than half a million dollars. UNC-Chapel Hill also recently accepted a respective grant of their own that totaled more than $2 million.

One might think that an institution such as The Pope Foundation would be unanimously popular at both universities, however, as we have recently witnessed, this is not the case. Known for their conservative views, The Pope Foundation hasn’t been welcomed by all at either university.

Professors Cat Warren, David Auerbach, Sheila Smith McKoy and David Ambaras are opposed to accepting the Pope Foundation’s grant. The College Republicans president, Brittany Farrell, believes there is “no logical reason” behind said professors’ exuberant dissent.

Pope Foundation president Art Pope maintains that while he is offended by these professor’s “malicious attacks,” it is the students who suffer the greatest amount of loss from “thwarted educational opportunities.”

I couldn’t agree more. If the Pope Foundation wishes to donate money to the University with no strings attached then I see no reason whatsoever not to accept it. In fact, I think it is borderline unethical to not accept the grant without good reason.

Grants such as those generously provided by the Pope Foundation increase undergraduate and graduate programs, research and overall academic opportunity and excellence.Faculty who wish to deny the handsome amounts of donated money are consequently restraining and perhaps even denying their students full academic potential.

I have no problem accepting the Pope Foundations money regardless if I disagree with their stance on certain academic issues.

If the Pope Foundation is not forcing me to believe what they believe, I say, “show me the money.”

The Pope Foundation states on its Web site that higher education has “strayed from its chief goals of scholarly inquiry and responsible teaching.” Furthermore, they maintain that “students can get by without taking rigorous courses, and nonacademic activities overshadow scholarship.” Thus, the Pope Foundation believes that the current higher education system “appears to provide little educational value.”

I beg your pardon Mr. Pope, but the higher education system that I am a part of provides enormous educational value. As for whether or not “students get by without rigorous courses,” well, that just depends on what the individual student signs up for – whether they want to challenge themselves or not. A motivating factor of action listed on the Pope Foundation’s Web site is “limits on government.” It seems hypocritical to support a view of a limited government while they themselves attempt to impose specific academic codes for local college students to follow.

Their Web site also lists “the belief that competition is an excellent regulating force” as an additional motivating factor of action. Perhaps the Pope Foundation also believes in an academic survival of the fittest, or maybe Mr. Pope just wants to weed out the less-bright of the bunch whose graduation depends on their success in the classes he has deemed as not being “rigorous.”

Whether we like it or not, the highest can’t stand without the lowest.

As for the discontentment in Chapel Hill, UNC professors are not pleased about the school’s association with the Pope Foundation. The Daily Tar Heel reports, “UNC faculty members were wary that such a donation from a conservative group would be a danger to academic freedom.”

Specifically, the DTH reports that the Pope Foundation has openly chastised UNC for “offering courses in women’s studies, instating a cultural diversity requirement and selecting controversial books for the summer reading program.”

Such alleged criticism leads UNC professor Don Nonini to say, “The Pope Foundation has shown it’s not a friend of the University.”

However, UNC has inherited over $2 million recently from Mr. Pope’s foundation so obviously there is still some sort of mutual affection.

In fact, about $100,000 of the grant helped pay for UNC’s assistant football coaches. UNC Chancellor James Moeser stated in the DTH that “Carolina football would not be what it is today without John.” Pope, that is, not Bunting.

To accept the money or not to accept the money – that is the question. I just wish everyone would be absolutely honest about why one is giving it, and why one doesn’t want to receive it.

E-mail Warren and tell him if you would accept or decline a Pope Foundation grant at [email protected].