The study of Western civilization used to be a rite of passage for the university-educated. Now it is an afterthought at best, consigned to the shadows of the curriculum as universities pursue trendy multiculturalism. And the reaction to a proposal to bring Western civilization back shows how feared the liberating study is by campus radicals.

In North Carolina, 36 percent of the 11 University of North Carolina schools surveyed still require a course in Western history or Western civilization. That’s according to “How Solid is the Core?: A Study of General Education Requirements at 11 North Carolina Institutions,” a study released this fall by the Pope Center for Higher Education Policy. But about 64 percent “require a multicultural or cultural diversity course.” The study declared this finding “at best a sign of interest in non-Western cultures, but all too often an exercise in politically correct ‘education.’”

“[N]ot one institution requires all undergraduates to take a course in United States history.”

It’s a deficit the College of Arts and Sciences at UNC-Chapel Hill is seeking to address. The college is working on a proposal to bring a Western civilization program to UNC-CH, and it has approached the John William Pope Foundation for financial support.

The subsequent outcry that greeted news of this proposal was so vehement, and so vicious, that one would think the college had proposed replacing the Old Well with a statue of President Bush. Campus leftists quickly ramped up a smear campaign against the donors approached by the college.

The Triangle’s leftist tabloid The Independent made it a cover story in October, with editor Richard Hart warning that the Pope Foundation “has an agenda that’s antithetical to the principles of academic freedom and cultural diversity” and insinuating that the university’s proposal would be tainted by association.

“Faculty were dismayed that the university would accept funding from the financial backers of the Pope Center for Higher Education Policy,” Hart wrote, because the Pope Center “has been on a crusade against ‘liberal bias’ at UNC and its lack of ‘Western studies’ requirements as compared to ‘politically correct’ courses in multiculturalism.” (The Pope Center is a think tank founded with seed money and support from the Pope Foundation.)

Hart implied that the Western-civilization proposal wouldn’t pass “the smell test” because “it’s impossible to separate the Pope Foundation’s interest in contributing to undergraduate programs with its founders’ desire to influence the content of that study.”

He quotes a report by an organization called the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, which intoned that “conservative foundations” succeed in using their resources to work “to the detriment of the populations that are not served by their nonprofit clients’ assaults on civil rights, tax equity, affirmative action, gay and lesbian rights and many other concerns of ordinary Americans.”

Independent writer Barbara Solow also wrote that the problem was that “a network of conservative organizations [have been] created with Pope family money,” including the Pope Center and the John Locke Foundation. After all, the Pope Center’s “critical drumbeat,” Solow said, included “help[ing] organize a campaign against freshmen reading choices at UNC and has supported student claims of “liberal bias” in the classroom,” and worse, held a conference (on academic freedom, a factoid Solow admitted) that “feature[d] a speech by David Horowitz, a leader in the push for a national ‘Academic Bill of Rights’ aimed at securing equal time for conservative views on campus.”

(The keynote address of the Pope Center’s conference on “Freedom and the American Campus” was actually delivered by Dr. Roger E. Meiners, author and Goolsby distinguished professor of economics at the University of Texas-Arlington, who spoke on the topic of “Higher Education — Will Market Competition Succeed Where Subsidies Have Failed?”)

“What does it say about a university if its leaders accept ‘gifts’ from those who support organizations that systematically attack the university’s faculty and programs?” UNC-CH sociology professor Sherryl Kleinman asked.

“There is just so much evidence that they have an agenda,” said William “Sandy” Darity Jr., an economics professor and director of the Institute of African American Research. “I think there needs to be an answer from the highest level of the university on this.”

Bernadette Gray-Little, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, tried to explain to the Independent that the proposal was benign. “This is an opportunity to do something that would enrich the undergraduate curriculum,” she said. “The proposal is neither conservative nor liberal. Our interest in this is not political.”

Nevertheless, on Nov. 10, with another meeting over the proposal upcoming, a posting to the campus leftist listserv called for a protest. “Mark” of the Student Environment Action Coalition wrote, “Sorry about the late notice, but I thought this would be interesting for those of you concerned about academic independence here at UNC.”

“The attachments regard a grant proposal from the Pope brothers [sic] for the establishment of a Western Civ department [sic] (i.e. history dealing solely with the disenfranchised plight of rich, white, Protestant men) and why the University should turn down the Pope brothers [sic],” Mark wrote. “The protest to the meeting between the university and the Pope brothers [sic] — which no students are allowed to attend at this point — will be tomorrow. Details are enclosed in the attachments.”

The attachments demanded in bold-faced type, “Should UNC-CH Accept $12 Million from Racist, Sexist, Classist, Homophobic Donors?”

They began: “Did you know that some UNC-CH faculty and administrators are working on a several million dollar grant to create a certificate entitled, ‘Studies in Western Civilization’?” It warned that the Pope family “funds the John William Pope Foundation, the Pope Center for Higher Education Policy, and the John Locke Foundation” and that “[t]hese organizations have systematically attacked and discredited many programs and professors at UNC-Chapel Hill and other universities.”

They listed several articles from the Pope Center, lifting phrases out of their context to make them appear extra offensive, and quoted a Charlotte Observer column about Art Pope that said he and his family “spent millions to promote conservative ideals.” In sum, they asked, “Are these the beliefs to which UNC-CH should have loyalty?”

UNC-CH’s Graduate and Professional Student Federation joined the fray, passing a resolution Nov. 11 against the university taking a grant from the Pope Foundation. The resolution also cited the Pope Center for Higher Education as “work[ing] to create a hostile climate to academic freedom for instructors.”

Regardless of the personal attacks and fearmongering, no one knows the kind of program being proposed yet. Not even Art Pope, president of the Pope Foundation, who at the time of this writing didn’t know what form it would take. He said the proposal is the college’s to make, and that he just has a general idea about it. He does not yet know about whether what’s proposed will be for an Area Studies approach or that of an interdisciplinary degree, and he was curious about what it would entail by way of additional honors courses, research and study-abroad fellowships, lecture series, and graduate seminars.

As for the attacks against his foundation about academic freedom, Pope reiterated that he was respecting academic freedom by letting the college prepare and submit a proposal to his foundation for graduate, and especially undergraduate, education in Western civilization. “How much more respect for academic freedom can there be when you let the university come up with the proposal?” he asked.

As Shannon Blosser reported in Carolina Journal last month, Duke University has a program focused on the study of Western civilization. Duke’s Gerst Program, according to its web site, “aims at fostering an understanding of the central importance of freedom for democratic government, moral responsibility, and economic and cultural life.” The program includes a freshman Focus Program on “Visions of Freedom,” which includes courses in political economy, English, philosophy, and history.

Jon Sanders is assistant editor of Carolina Journal.