Last month, members of the Appropriations Committee of the
             North Carolina House of Representatives voted to use the power
             of the state budget to block the assignment of a book to all
             freshmen and transfer students at the University of North
             Carolina at Chapel Hill: Approaching the Qur'an: The Early
             Revelations (White Cloud Press, 1999), by Michael Sells, a
             professor of religion at Haverford College. Denying public
             funds to the reading program unless "all other known religions
             were offered in an equal or incremental way," they stipulated
             that their prohibition "is not intended to interfere with
             academic freedom, but to ensure that all religions are taught
             Even if well intended, however, the move does, in fact,
             demonstrate the significant and growing threats to academic
             freedom that can occur in times of economic and political
             The controversy began in June, when three unidentified
             freshmen sued the university in federal court, arguing that
             assigning the book inappropriately blurred the
             constitutionally mandated separation of church and state. The
             legislative committee then took its action, and, in response,
             the university system's Board of Governors dithered over
             passing a resolution in support of academic freedom -- in
             part, for fear of further alienating the state's budget
             writers. (A resolution by a committee of the board passed
             unanimously on August 22; the full board will vote on the
             The legislative committee's move signifies, in a number of
             ways, how much the independence of public colleges and
             universities may be in jeopardy. First, it inserts state
             politicians directly into the administration of a university
             by using the power of the purse to censor the curriculum. Ever
             since the founding of most land-grant institutions, in the
             mid-19th century, state legislatures have refrained ...