An Interview with UNC-Chapel Hill Trustee John Preyer | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Preyer: I think that's a great thing. I'm delighted that the General Assembly is supporting it. And I think that the UNC administration needs to put together a timeline for the hiring of a dean for the School of Civic Life and Leadership and [for] letting the dean hire key staff. In order for it to really become a presence on campus, there needs to be someone who is in the head of it, in charge of it. I would love to see a dean named sometime this fall. And that dean [should be] given the latitude to do the hiring and the things that one would expect to launch and stand up a new school like that.

    Martin Center: That would be very exciting. UNC has made some significant strides on free-speech [protections]. The faculty and the board have both adopted the Chicago Principles. The board has adopted a statement on institutional neutrality and a civility pledge. There have been two free-expression surveys. Is there still more to be done?

    Preyer: Well, I think it's something we have to continue to monitor. The climate for [the] free exchange of ideas needs to be different than what it has been the past several years. And I think that's where we're hopefully headed. I don't know that we're there right now. My sense is that we're moving in the right direction, but we're not there. And I think that a lot of the surveys have indicated that, oftentimes, the problem is coming not from faculty trying to dictate to students how they should think. It's students effectively chastising their classmates or canceling their views and creating an atmosphere of intolerance of differing viewpoints. So really, I think that's part of the reason that we want to see this School of Civic Life and Leadership stood up very quickly.

    When I was a political science major, I had, by the time I graduated, [taken] 18 (plus or minus) classes in my major. And I had one class that stood out where it was a true free exchange of ideas. And it was a North Carolina politics class taught by Thad Beyle, who was a Democrat, very upfront about it, and a wonderful professor. And he co-taught the class with the then-mayor of Chapel Hill, Jonathan House, also a Democrat. And I never, ever thought that they were trying to dictate how people should view an issue as much as they wanted a free exchange of ideas and [for you to] defend your position in a way that everybody else can talk about. And it was one of the best classes I ever had. And you knew that no one in that class was ever going to be shouted down, or made to feel that their view was not worth being discussed, et cetera. And I think that's what we've got to get back to.

    Martin Center: Do you have anything else you want to add?


    Preyer: No, just I would say thank you for your interest in trying to get greater transparency with our committee meetings and for taking the time to come and attend them in person. I know it's a chore to pay attention to all of it. And not all the meetings have issues of real interest. But some of them do. And it's a great thing that the Martin Center's putting the time into this because it's obviously something that a lot of people are working hard to try and advance: the cause for greater civility and the free exchange of ideas.

    Jenna A. Robinson is the president of the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal.