BUZZ
Wow, that was fast.
University of North Carolina System leaders on Tuesday issued their formal response to Education Secretary Linda McMahon’s recent call for institutions to develop and publish reform plans.
The secretary had asked colleges and universities across the nation for a response by the end of the year, but UNC provided an 11-page memo just two weeks after the request.
The topics McMahon wanted addressed include transparency and merit in admissions, tackling AI concerns, keeping college affordable, prioritizing excellence, ensuring free speech and academic freedom, and protecting schools from nefarious foreign influences.
The UNC letter, signed by the president of the system and chair of the board of governors for the system’s 17 schools, touted some of the major reforms undertaken in recent years, including ending all affirmative action policies and using merit-based admissions.
“The UNC System has eliminated policies and practices on consideration of race in admission, moved decisively toward race-blind applications, prohibited aggregate targets of racial composition, provided training on implementing race-blind admissions practices, and ensured that approaches to admissions criteria are not proxies for race,” the letter stated.
It also spelled out the universities’ free speech protection policies and academic freedom protections and noted all syllabi are posted online for review starting this school year.
“Faculty are protected in teaching, research, publication, and scholarly inquiry from undue influence. That protection expressly includes the examination of controversial or unpopular ideas and the presentation of diverse perspectives relevant to a field of study,” the letter stated.
“Academic freedom is not absolute; it is paired with responsibility. Instruction and research must remain connected to the subject matter, professional standards, institutional policy, and fair academic evaluation,” it added.
On affordability, the memo noted tuition for North Carolina residents is among the lowest in the nation and in-state undergraduates saw no increase in tuition for the past nine years. On AI concerns, system leaders said they’re working to develop and refine the best ways to move forward, noting “AI holds great promise, but we must be vigilant about maintaining rigor in our classrooms.”
The News & Observer reported that foreign influence “was one of several topics on which the system appears to gently push back.”
“The system says it ‘welcome[s] federal accountability that is clear, lawful, focused on broadly supported public needs, and respectful of constitutional rights, state governance, academic professionalism, and the distinct missions of public institutions.'”
MORE: Education secretary to universities: Publish reform plans by end of 2026
