Joyce Krawiec serves in the North Carolina Senate. She represents Davie County and Forsyth County, NC. Christian, wife, mother, small business owner, and conservative.
An open letter to President Wheelan of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools in Atlanta, Georgia. She stuck her nose in our business when she spoke out against the UNC Board of Trustees when they announced the formation of a new school at UNC, School of Civic Life and Leadership. Hint: it’s about free speech and everyone having a voice.
President Wheelan:
Howdy from the Tar Heel State. You know the one. Appalachian Mountains to the west, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. NASCAR country. Tobacco fields. Michael Jordan. And a long stretch of I-85 that took you from your last job as Secretary of Education in Virginia to your new role as President of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools in Atlanta, Georgia.
Your job in Atlanta is very important. You oversee the organization that accredits colleges across the southern United States. If a school is not accredited, its students lose access to federal financial aid programs. In North Carolina we might say that if a school is not accredited, it ain’t worth a hill of beans.
During a February 7 presentation, you said that “UNC-Chapel Hill’s board is going to get a letter because… [they] decided they were going to put in this new curriculum offering… that’s kind of not the way we do business.”
The “curriculum offering” you were referring to the UNC School of Civic Life and Leadership. This is a new school that the UNC Board of Trustees voted for this year to “explore American civic values with the full freedom of expression, intellectual diversity, and open inquiry that such studies require.”
In other words, North Carolina is finally planning to create a school at UNC that is not woke. You do not like that. So you are planning to threaten UNC’s Board of Trustees and students if they do not “do business” the way you want them to. In your own mind you have all the power of Boss Hoss in Hazard County, Georgia to stop it.
President Wheelan, you are not in Georgia anymore.
The organization you lead gets its authority from the federal Higher Education Act of 1965. It was chosen by the US Department of Education to assess universities in this region fairly and accurately, based plain old reading, writing, and arithmetic. You have zero authority threaten North Carolina students or schools because they will not abide by your out-of-state dictates.
North Carolinians can be tougher than a pine knot. You are on a fast track to learning the hard way from my good friend Virginia Foxx (R-NC).
Representative Foxx is a tough mountain lady. She grew up in a rural home with no running water. She worked as a janitor to pay her way through school, eventually earning a Bachelor’s degree from the university you are sending letters to now. She also holds a doctorate in Education and once served as President of a North Carolina community college.
She knows a thing or two about sacrifice and about investing in her own higher education. She also knows how university accreditation works.
With Republicans in the majority, Representative Foxx is now the Chairwoman of the Education Committee in the US House of Representatives. She recently corralled nearly all the Republicans in the North Carolina Congressional delegation to send you a letter of their own. They want to know exactly what you meant by your comments and whether or not these threats are a routine practice. Her letter appears to be an opening salvo. Think carefully. Do you want to pour gas on her fire?
Courage is contagious. Reform in higher education is coming. Students are sick of the sky-high debt. Vote are sick of the nonsense. State across the country are finally taking action.
In the North Carolina Senate where I serve, a supermajority of legislators is now committed to taking every action possible to systemically uproot and destroy hateful ideology in the classroom. We are going to stand with Virginia Foxx, the UNC Board of Trustees, and the School of Civic Life and Leadership one-hundred percent of the way.
Sincerely,
Senator Joyce Krawiec
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Joyce Krawiec serves in the North Carolina Senate. She represents Davie County and Forsyth County, NC. Christian, wife, mother, small business owner, and conservative.