The Pope Center for Higher Education Policy?s Jay Schalin has some harsh words for UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Holden Thorp in a new column ? but they?re justified. Thorp has badly mishandled another episode in the Youth for Western Civilization story. From Jay?s piece:


According to a Raleigh News & Observer report last week, anonymous flyers appeared on the Chapel Hill campus that
provided the name, photograph, phone number, and home address of the
YWC?s faculty advisor, emeritus professor Elliot Cramer. The flyers
asked, ?Why is your professor supporting white supremacy?”

Nikhil Patel, the current YWC president, perceived an implied threat in
the flyer. It was not the first time that the radicals used this
approach to intimidate the YWC. At a YWC event in April that was violently disrupted by radicals, they directed the following
chant at YWC members and in particular, last year?s YWC president,
Riley Matheson: “Against racists, we will fight. We know where you
sleep at night.”

After Patel informed Cramer of the potential threat posed by the flyer,
Cramer jokingly replied in an email that “I have a Colt .45, and I know
how to use it.? It was a tongue-in-cheek play on a statement made by
Matheson when he was again threatened at a second event last April
(explained below). He also sent the email to school chancellor Holden
Thorp and Haley Koch, a radical leader arrested at an earlier meeting.

Thorp responded by asking for Cramer?s resignation as the group?s
advisor, calling the retired professor?s comments ?highly inappropriate
and not consistent with the civil discourse we are trying to achieve.”
While his decisions about the YWC?s ongoing difficulties with the
radicals have generally been good, this time the chancellor appears to
have made a serious error. Cramer was merely making a joke, and joking
aside, commenting that he was prepared to defend himself in his own
home should a potential threat turn out to be real. Making such a
statement is fully within his rights.

Because of Cramer?s resignation, the YWF now has 30 days to find
another faculty sponsor or cease to be a campus organization. And the
radicals have a reason to believe their aggressive tactics are working.