Most of the time, academic boards of trustees sit around like potted plants. They don’t fight back against the politicization of their institutions driven by “woke” administrators, much less do anything positive to improve the academic integrity of the school.

A notable exception is in North Carolina, where UNC has forged ahead due to leaders (specifically, the UNC Board of Governors) who decided not to just sit around. In today’s Martin Center article, Jenna Robinson writes about two splendid developments.

One of the policies the Board of Governors enacted will protect against compelled speech. It puts an end to the ugly mandates for “diversity statements” by applicants for university positions. Robinson quotes Peter Hans, the UNC system president, who says that, “We cannot condition employment or enrollment on adherence to any set of beliefs, no matter how well intended. There’s a long list of good and worthy ideas we could require people to hold, but that’s not the role of the university. If we require students and employees to conform to a prescribed set of beliefs, that simply isn’t true to our tradition of free minds, free speech, and free thought.”

The other piece of good news from Chapel Hill is that the university is going to create a new school devoted to Civic Life and Leadership. It will teach without any political slant. Let us hope it can remain untainted by the inevitable efforts by the Left to subvert it.

Robinson concludes, “The UNC System and UNC-Chapel Hill are leading the way on free expression, viewpoint diversity, and academic freedom. Over the last 10 years, the changes across the UNC System have been the most comprehensive in the country. It is indeed a good day to be a Tar Heel.”