The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has announced the creation of a new School of Civil Life and Leadership (SCiLL), aimed at promoting free speech and civil discourse on campus.
The new initiative will offer students courses designed to equip them with skills for engaging in reasoned debates, including oral presentation, resolving misunderstandings, and navigating tough conversations with peers and faculty, according to Fox News. The school will also feature a “high-profile fellows program for semester-long conversations on challenging topics with multiple, even contentious, perspectives.”
John P. Preyer, chair of the UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees, emphasized the importance of the initiative in today’s polarized environment.
“In an increasingly divisive time with polarization on both sides of the political spectrum, now more than ever, we need to teach our students how to think critically and how to reason and argue their points with their peer group in a constructive way, Preyer told Fox News. “That’s not been happening on college campuses. This is an opportunity for the University of North Carolina to lead nationally and help restore civil debate in a way that is needed not only on campus but in our country.”
The launch of SCiLL follows recent controversy on campus, when pro-Palestine protests erupted, garnering widespread attention. The university, one of the oldest public institutions in the country, became a focal point of national debate when a UNC fraternity group defended the American flag as protesters attempted to replace it with a Palestinian flag.
However, the program designed to promote free speech and civil discourse on campus has already been met with criticism from faculty members. History professor Jay Smith expressed his concerns in an op-ed for the student newspaper, labeling the initiative as “affirmative action for conservatives.”
“Though they would never admit it, the faculty of SCiLL benefited from affirmative action, but of the unjustifiable kind that works in reverse,” Smith wrote. “Their candidacies for positions at UNC were made possible not by pure merit, which they may or may not possess, but by their membership in or adjacency to a well-funded conservative ecosystem saturated by euphemisms like ‘viewpoint diversity,’ ‘civility’ and ‘balance.’ That ecosystem thrives on other built-in advantages.”
Despite the backlash, some view the new school with optimism. Conservative activist Kenny Xu described SCiLL to Fox News as “the most ambitious plan yet in American higher education to develop a school to prepare people to debate both sides of an opinion.”
“I think the hope of the trustees is that it becomes a model,” Xu said. “A lot of university presidents are following the establishment of the school carefully. If UNC becomes successful at attracting student demand, high-quality professors and enhancing debate, I think other universities might follow through with that as well.”
