Two more first sightings for 2023

Steve Schwartzman

Mar 7

Along Mopac on February 26th I photographed my first Engelmann daises (Engelmannia peristenia) for this year. The out-of-focus pavement served as a good neutral backdrop, while out-of-focus grasses and other plants provided that service for a nearby greenthread (Thelesperma filifolium), whose nodding bud is typical of that familiar wildflower species.

§ § §

The National Association of Scholars (NAS) reported on February 28th that the University of North Carolina is taking an important step back to sanity:

The battle over "diversity, equity, and inclusion" (DEI) initiatives in higher education has begun in earnest. And today we can report another major victory at the University of North Carolina, where the school's Board of Governors has voted to ban DEI statements—otherwise known as "diversity" statements—in hiring, promotion, and admission decisions.

The board stated that UNC "shall neither solicit nor require an employee or applicant for academic admission or employment to affirmatively ascribe to or opine about beliefs, affiliations, ideals, or principles regarding matters of contemporary political debate or social action as a condition to admission, employment, or professional advancement," nor may an employee or applicant "be solicited or required to describe his or her actions in support of, or in opposition to, such beliefs, affiliations, ideals, or principles."

(It would be nice if the UNC Board could also use the correct subscribe rather than the incorrect ascribe.)

The NAS article goes on to mention another welcome development at the University of North Carolina:

In addition to the board's resolution, UNC has proposed a new school—the School of Civic Life and Leadership—to promote viewpoint diversity on campus.

"At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill," said David Boliek, UNC Board of Trustees Chair, "we clearly have a world-class faculty that exists and teaches students, and creates leaders of the future. We, however, have no shortage of left-of-center, progressive views on our campus, like many campuses across the nation, but the same really cannot be said of right-of-center views. So this is an effort to try and remedy that with the School of Civic Life and Leadership, which will provide equal opportunity for both views to be taught at the university."

"This is all about individual freedom and intellectual vigor," Boliek said, "and we want that to always be alive at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Research shows that students, especially conservative students, routinely self-censor themselves in many of America's leading colleges and universities—including here at North Carolina. We want to provide that opportunity for students to express themselves, to learn and develop the skills necessary to be leaders."

If you're curious or skeptical about the degree to which universities have gotten out of balance, the article includes a bar chart from 2020 showing the ratio of left-to-right professors in various fields. The least imbalanced subject included in the chart is economics, where the left/right ratio is "only" 3.0 to 1. The most imbalanced is anthropology, where the ratio is an astounding 42.2 to 1.

You're welcome to read the full article.