Letter published in the Wilmington Star-News
by Board of Governors member Hannah Gage
August 15, 2002

EDITOR:

In the past few weeks there has been heated discussion about the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's summer reading choice for freshman (Approaching the Qur'an: The Early Revelations). Thus far, it's the only issue that has succeeded in eclipsing the hysteria surrounding a state lottery.

Support of academic freedom is rarely convenient. This year, emotions, like the stock market, have mirrored a roller coaster, which makes it all the more difficult to separate feelings from the bigger issues. Unfortunately, it's times like these when more than ever, we need to look with open eyes at what really matters.

First, academic freedom is the very foundation of what has made the University of North Carolina System great. Without it, we simply would not have a public educational system that is envied throughout the country. Second, we start down a slippery slope when state legislators begin to dictate what can and cannot be taught at state universities.

It's imperative that we step outside the emotional arena and recognize that required reading is not advocacy.

... In the 1920's the legislature attempted to ban the teaching of evolution and in the 1960's it was the speaker ban law to prohibit communists from speaking on our university campuses. We should learn from our past.

The real issue here is not the book. It's whether we believe in the value of academic freedom and the open exchange of ideas. This belief cannot be time-sensitive and it can't be supported only when it's politically convenient. It must be constant; it must be enduring.

Hannah Dawson Gage
Wilmington

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