As we know, the local magazine Independent Weekly loves to hate on all things Pope-backed. I suspect they think it’s courageous in a “stick it to the Man, man” kind of way. Regardless of the thinking, though, it sometimes leads them to print rather silly quotes like the one below from UNC-Chapel Hill professor Hassan Melehy.
Melehy used to teach a class called “The World of the Beat Generation” until it was cut by the university in 2007. The Pope Center recently criticized the class as frivolous compared to professor Larry Goldberg’s much-loved “Elements of Politics” class. The number of sections of Goldberg’s class is slated to be cut from 2 to 1 in the Spring semester (The Daily Tar Heel has the details here).
Anyway, Melehy was incensed that the Pope Center thought his class was frivolous by comparison:
The Pope Center is entirely entitled to its opinions, but ‘less than consequential?’ It’s sheer stupidity to say that my course is less consequential than politics courses. Sheer stupidity.
Of course, by that definition, the university is also stupid, since it obviously agrees with the Pope Center. After all, UNC cut Melehy’s class years ago, while Goldberg is still teaching his.
