Pope Center

The John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy is a conservative,[1] nonprofit institute located in Raleigh, North Carolina "dedicated to improving higher education in North Carolina and the nation."[2] It was founded and is funded largely by Art Pope, a conservative businessman.[3] The Pope Center is one of several conservative public policy centers underwritten by the Pope family, which has also contributed significantly to UNC-Chapel Hill and, in lesser amounts, to arts and humanitarian causes in North Carolina.[4] It is named for John William Pope,[5] who served as a member of the Board of Trustees of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.[6] The Pope Center has attained the GuideStar Exchange Gold participation level, a symbol of transparency and accountability.[7]

History and organization

The Pope Center originated in 1996[8] as a project of the John Locke Foundation (also founded by Art Pope), a nonprofit think tank concerned especially with free markets, limited constitutional government, and personal responsibility.[9] In 2003, the Pope Center was incorporated as a separate entity.

The current president of the Pope Center is Jenna A. Robinson, a long-time employee of the John Locke Foundation and a graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill and the Koch Associates Program sponsored by the Charles G. Koch Association.[10] The previous president was Jane S. Shaw, who retired in February 2015.[11] The director of research at the Pope Center is George Leef, and its director of policy analysis is Jay Schalin.[12] Schalin studied Computer Science at New Jersey's Richard Stockton College [13] and Leef is the former Vice-President of the John Locke Foundation.[14] The Pope Center is governed by a board of directors[15] and is also supported by an academic advisory committee.[16] The Pope Center is funded primarily by the John William Pope Foundation.[17]

Activities and criticism

The Pope Center describes its role as a "watchdog" with respect to higher education in the United States in general and the public system in North Carolina in particular. [18][19][20] The UNC Chapel-Hill included among its trustees, John W. Pope, father of Art Pope, who saw the university campus as becoming close-minded and politically correct.[18][21] The Pope Center makes available on its website many of the research and policy papers authored by its staff, including reports on campus speech codes, faculty teaching loads, general education programs, and privately funded university academic centers.[22]

The Pope Center and associated think tanks have been criticized by faculty in the North Carolina university system. Catherine Warren, director of Women's and Gender Studies at, complained about a Pope Center report on women's studies programs in the UNC system, calling it "inane crap." [18] UNC French Professor Hassan Melehy accused Art Pope of using the Pope Center and the John Locke Center to combine "a public image of concerned generosity about the university system with open attacks on the faculty and curriculum at UNC–Chapel Hill." [23] Other critics have echoed this assessment, with Jed Purdy of the New Yorker magazine describing the Pope Center as staging "a two-pronged attack on public higher education as currently practised." The two prongs are described as supporting a return to a "Great Books" curriculum and tuition changes that would drive more students towards pre-professional majors. [24] The Pope Center's commentaries and research papers have called for budget cuts to the UNC system and for increasing faculty teaching loads and eliminating teaching reductions for administrators.[23] The Center's Director, George Leef, has argued to eliminate the public subsidies for the state's scholarly press (the University of North Carolina Press) and for cuts in funding for the university system generally, terming it a "boondoggle".[25][21]

The Pope Center has argued for "renewal of the university", advocating the creation of privately funded academic centers, which, in their view, would offer balance to academic courses.[26] They have criticized in particular Gene Nichol, director of UNC Chapel-Hill's Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity, accusing him of partisanship and financial opacity.[27] In 2015, a committee of the UNC system voted to close Nichol's center along with two others.[26]

References

  1. ↑ "Ayn Rand Comes to UNC". The New Yorker. March 19, 2015.
  2. ↑ "About Us". Retrieved April 7, 2015.
  3. ↑ "State for Sale". October 10, 2011.
  4. ↑ "About Art Pope".
  5. ↑ "John W. Pope". Free Enterprise Heroes. Retrieved November 10, 2011.
  6. ↑ "About Us | The John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy". Popecenter.org. Retrieved November 10, 2011.
  7. ↑ "John W. Pope Center GuideStar Profile". Retrieved April 13, 2015.
  8. ↑ "Site Info | The John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy". Popecenter.org. Retrieved November 10, 2011.
  9. ↑ "John Locke Foundation". Johnlocke.org. Retrieved April 8, 2015.
  10. ↑ "Jenna Ashley Robinson, Carolina Journal". Retrieved August 5, 2015.
  11. ↑ "Pope Center elects Jenna Robinson as president". Retrieved April 8, 2015.
  12. ↑ "Staff". Retrieved April 7, 2015.
  13. ↑ "Jay Schalin, Carolina Journal". Retrieved August 6, 2015.
  14. ↑ "George Leef, Carolina Journal". Retrieved April 8, 2015.
  15. ↑ "Board of Directors". Retrieved April 7, 2015.
  16. ↑ "Academic Advisory Committee". Retrieved April 7, 2015.
  17. ↑ "John William Pope Foundation — Home Page". John William Pope Foundation. Retrieved April 29, 2016.
  18. 1 2 3 Moeser, James. "The Pope Center defends itself | NEWS: In Response | Independent Weekly". Indyweek.com. Retrieved November 10, 2011.
  19. ↑ http://www.johnlocke.org/acrobat/articles/inquiry22-womensstudies.pdf
  20. ↑ "Friday Interview: Schools of Education". Carolinajournal.com. March 14, 2008. Retrieved November 10, 2011.
  21. 1 2 Meyer, Jane (10 Oct 2011). "State for Sale". The New Yorker. Retrieved 29 April 2016.
  22. ↑ "Research | The John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy". Popecenter.org. November 19, 1999. Retrieved April 8, 2015.
  23. 1 2 "Curriculum For Sale? Conservative philanthropy in North Carolina comes at a price". May 2012. Retrieved August 3, 2015.
  24. ↑ Jedediah Purdy (March 19, 2015). "A Political Crackdown at University of North Carolina - The New Yorker". The New Yorker. Retrieved April 29, 2016.
  25. ↑ "Stop the Presses! Or, At Least, Stop Their Subsidies!". November 5, 2015. Retrieved November 20, 2015.
  26. 1 2 Carpenter, Zoe. "How A Right-Wing Political Machine Is Dismantling Higher Education in North Carolina". The Nation. Retrieved 29 April 2016.
  27. ↑ Jaschick, Scott. "Who Is Being Political?". Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved 29 April 2016.

External links

Coordinates: 35°49′15″N 78°37′34″W / 35.8208°N 78.6260°W / 35.8208; -78.6260

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