An Unnecessary (and Avoidable) Debacle

BobLee
September09/ 2013

I pick my battles in my 24/7 war with Left-wing Loonies. Oh, I do see the dangers inherent in pretty much every nook & cranny of their hare-brained socio-political agendas. But I cannot rail endlessly on ALL of the foolishness that seeps from their pointy little heads.

Liberal Media Bias is, of course, my #1 pet issue. Today I must wander into a topic swamp I would prefer to avoid – UNC-CH, The General Assembly & The Multi-Gender Crowd.

Today (Friday) the UNC Brd of Governors voted to outlaw (WRAL’s choice of inflammatory verb) the “very hot potato” Gender Neutral Housing ruling passed last November by the UNC Brd of Trustees.

I must do yet another lengthy explanation about The BOG and the BOTs; knowing that 84% of you will never bother to understand the significant differences.

Who is Tom Ross? Whats a Chancellor? Who fired Butch Davis? Who hired Mary Easley? Where is Dickie Baddour? Why does McQueen Campbell look like Howdy Doody? Who said “Coach, how is this affecting recruiting?” and on and on and on.

The UNC System is 18 campuses overseen by The UNC Board of Governors (32 members) and its appointed President (Tom Ross). Each UNC-system member campus has its own Chancellor who works WITH a Board of Trustees (13 members).

The UNC BOG is an Administrative body.
The respective BOTs on each campus are Advisory bodies.

The members of both Boards are political appointees either directly or indirectly. To say they are not is semantical trickery.

I know for a fact that there ARE a number of darn fine smart folks on the UNC-BOG and on the 18 BOTs. There are also more than a few whose best decision in their lives was “picking their parents or their spouse” or picking which political candidate to donate to. Keeping that first group (the ones with functioning brains) in the majority is the key to a smidgen of common sense prevailing. It often seems like a losing battle.

The late Bill Friday set up the current “governance system” to be President-centric that the UNC System President would have the most power….. he being THAT person for 25+ years. Who can blame him.

The Gender Neutral Housing Kerfluffle was approved by vote of the BOT members present at that November meeting. NOTE: The BOT Chairman Wade Hargrove did not cast a vote; forseeing the likelihood of significant public and political concerns. All other Trustees voted for the measure. The “why” is that no Trustee wanted to appear to favor bullying and/or advocate any at-risk environment for any students regardless of their sexual orientation.

Who IS in favor of “bullying”? That’s like being in favor of puppy mills and dirty water. No one. That is how the original question was posed.

The student group asking for some form of Gender Neutral Housing framed their urgent request as a “personal safety” issue. It could have been “remove asbestos” or “get rid of lead paint”.

All Trustees in favor of No Puppy Mills, No Slippery Sidewalks, (and Gender-Neutral Housing) say Aye”. Motion passed. Next item.

I’m being a tiny bit simplistic but not much. That’s how all this began.

One seemingly simple little item that was destined to become a Godzilla Monster issue. In the goofy worlds of high academia and state government, you would be amazed how often BIG PROBLEMS do sprout from a single seed of good intentions.

The BOT ruling that the BOG has now overruled called for a very limited number of “units” in two designated campus housing facilites. I believe the maximum number of students that might be affected would have been 32. Four (4) students have signed up for the program since November. 1 – 2 – 3 – 4! Students of different sexes would NOT officially share a bedroom but those in the suite would share a common bathroom. Ergo – the dreaded “seat up or down” battle looms! Males and females WOULD indeed share “the suite” but boys and girls would not share bedrooms. But often do (unofficially) in all the other dorms at UNC and NCSU and ASU and ECU etc etc.

That there could be any sort of sexual contact between any of the students regardless of their sexual orientation would be no more likely to occur than occurs with the UNC housing rules currently in existence. CoEd dorms have been a fixture at UNC for 25+ years. CoEd dorms are a standard at 95% of colleges and universities in America.

How CoEd dorms are separated by floors, lines on the floor, curtains or concertina wire and claymore mines…. I don’t know.

My daughter lived in a CoEd dorm for her first year at “a prominent midwestern university”. She hated it. The two primary genders did NOT share restroom/showers facilities. My daughter was acutely aware that “getting it on” was “going on” throughout the dorm with resident advisors pretty much looking the other way. The “getting it on” was going on in every conceivable gender combination.

Lesbians currently room together all over UNC as do gay males. Nothing new about that. I’m not sure how “Trans’s” and “Bi’s” are counted. Overruling this BOT decision will not change any of that.

NOTE: The “influence” of the militant gay faction at UNC-CH relative to their actual numbers has been an aggressively-waged debate for quite some time. Both sides of the debate resorting to histrionics in lieu of facts. No change is likely in those tactics by any of the combatants….. sigh.

THAT reality has never set well with a significant % of this state’s voters. Such are our times.

The proposal was NOT calling for creating a Sodom Dorm and a Gomorrah Dorm or turning the entire campus into a giant uni-gender mosh pit with rampant copulating on the lawns. Might it have eventually expanded like some mutant strain of multi-sexual Kudzu? I suppose that might have happened.

WELL….. the headlines the day after the original BOT ruling set A LOT OF tongues awagging and produced more than a few cases of the “vapors” among politicos who grossly exaggerated the extent of the new policy.

The gay community and all its assorted allies made sure the BOT’s November ruling made headlines. That was a gawdawful miscalculation on their part. The LGBTQs, or whatever that activist collective is, made way too much noise celebrating “their victory” over the prudes and perceived homophobic factions in the state….. who happen to have considerable influence in the state legislature.

The timing could NOT have been worse as UNC-CH was arm-pit deep in the most dreadful scandal in its 250 year existence involving athletics and academic improprieties too numerous to recount.

In the midst of all that mess….. a 100% tone-deaf Chancellor and Brd of Trustees lobbed this guaranteed RPG into the news cycle – BOOM! The timing could NOT have been worse.

The NC General Assembly, already not inclined to think too highly of UNC-CH’s judgement was mortified. I’m not sure if law allows The Governor to declare “martial law” and assume control over an out-of-control UNC-CH campus….. but such was about to happen.

In normal times and with a calm proper presentation….. this Gender Neutral Housing issue might have been “no problemo”. These are not “normal times” and its presentation could not have been more poorly handled.

Now the BOG has “outlawed”(?) the original ruling which means the quite militant LGBTQs will now go into hard-core nasty protesting mode….. knowing, of course, that their allies in the radical liberal media will totally support them because they (media weasels) always do.

With the weasels of the radical liberal media actively involved; I can write a column about it. Which I just did.

A totally unnecessary, and quite avoidable, DEBACLE.
….. with no heroes on either side.

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BobLee
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