In North Carolina, Open Season on Poverty Advocates

Today I joined a group more than 40 environmental law professors and clinicians from institutions around the nation in a joint letter to the University of North Carolina System Board of Governors urging that they reject a recommendation to shutter the Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity, housed at the University of North Carolina Law School. That unfortunate recommendation arose from a special committee created by the board at the direction of the legislature to review all 237 of the state university system's centers, in the wake of criticism of state anti-poverty efforts by the Center's director, Professor Gene Nichol. To be clear, the Center takes no money from the state, and hasn't since 2009. It's funded by private contributions. It's being targeted not to save money, but because some in the legislature would rather not have to be reminded of poverty, and don't have the stomach for criticism of their policies. And since Professor Nichol's criticisms were a trigger for the special committee's review, it's no surprise that the committee has taken aim at the Center. I'm not directly affiliated with the Center, but our Center for Law, Environment, Adaptation, and Resources (CLEAR) at UNC Law has been looking to work with both the Poverty Center and the Carolina Law School's Center for Civil Rights to try and address how to minimize the disparate impacts on the poor and minorities from climate change that are going to happen at the North Carolina coast. But aside from my belief that the Poverty Center has much to contribute to advancement of environmental protection, I and my environmental colleagues around the country are writing because we find it hard to sit by while legislators seek to muzzle their critics in academia. Here's what we say in the letter: We represent a national group of environmental law professors and clinicians from over forty public and private law schools. Our discipline has faced similar politically motivated criticisms in the past, and will likely do so again in the future. We urge the North Carolina Board of Governors, and all regulators of institutes of higher education, to reject basing university decisions on the popularity of political positions. We come to this position based on important experience in our environmental legal field.