American higher education is loaded with ideological zealots who want to transform the country. But that’s certainly not true of all faculty and administrators, however, and UNC-Chapel Hill has recently chose as its new provost an astronomer who would like to see his university act like one.
In today’s Martin Center article, Shannon Watkins talks with Chris Clemens, the new provost.
It speaks well of him that he’s been associated with the university’s Program for Public Discourse. About that, Clemens says, “I’m very proud that we have this program, whose mission it is to teach our students what good discourse looks like, what are the norms for discourse, what it is to marshal and hear and present evidence in favor of some argument, and to persuade people. I think our students will get, from both watching the discourse as it’s modeled in that program and in training in the classroom, I hope they’ll get the skill of persuasion. That’s what we need to be teaching our students. And that’s not a skill that’s just a written skill. That’s a skill that very much has to do with discourse.”
The PPD program is also working with faculty on how to discuss sensitive topics so that “no one walks out in tears or is offended.” Good luck with that.
Clemens also understands that general education needs to be strengthened so that all students have basic “walking around knowledge.” Quite so.
And he also has this piece of sound advice for students, “Don’t come to college to argue ineffectively on some principles that you seek to promote; come to learn and to learn those skills that are going to make you persuasive for your whole life, and effective.”