University's 'inclusive' diversity dinner excludes conservative organizations

Guess who’s coming to dinner? If you’re at UNC-Chapel Hill, it’s probably not a conservative.

Last Tuesday, 40 student leaders from UNC-Chapel Hill were invited to discuss diversity and progress during a dinner hosted by Chancellor Carol Folt, Vice Chancellor Winston Crisp, and the Student Advisory Committee.

Conservative leaders were entirely omitted from the guest list even though the school has a plethora of conservative organizations including College Republicans, The Carolina Review, Carolina Students for Life, and a chapter of Young Americans for Liberty.

In fact, leaders of right-leaning organizations did not find out about the dinner until it was written up in The Daily Tar Heel the day after the event. 

Frank Pray, chairman of the College Republicans and editor-in-chief of The Carolina Review, told Campus Reform that when the Review reached out to Folt and Student Body Vice President Kyle Villemain last Wednesday, Folt told them that the dinner was the start of a larger conversation and that all viewpoints would be welcome in future discussion.

Folt and Pray are scheduled to meet this Wednesday to further discuss the dinner.

This is not the first case of exclusion of conservative viewpoints at UNC-Chapel Hill. Peter McClelland, Chairman of Emeritus of the UNC College Republicans and the current Chairman of the Log Cabin Republicans of North Carolina, told the Review that, “[i]n my nearly four years in this campus’ conservative movement, I have never met an administrator who made an effort to bring conservative voices into discussions about the future of the University.”

“Chancellor Folt’s stated goal of intellectual diversity is admirable, but she and the rest of the University administration must do more than pay mere lip service,” Pray wrote in the Review.

Chancellor Folt did not respond to Campus Reform’s request for comment in time for publication.

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