Subjects:
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 respon
. . .
Unfortunately, however, some legislatures use fiscal crises as
a cover for selectively cutting programs that treat
controversial matters.
This problem has become so threatening that the Association of
Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges has called on
its members to ward off such pressures if they are to govern
"in the public trust. If it is enacted, it will require
a debate on the definition of "known religions," the
practicality of trying to include every one of them in an
introductory course, and a judgment about the meaning of
"equal or incremental. They have also protested the removal of
Israeli scholars from the editorial boards of two
international academic journals published in Britain. In the aftermath of the deadly
bombing on his campus, he reaffirmed the value of academic
freedom in a world of moral crises: "I asked myself whether it
still makes sense to strive for a peaceful society based on
reason and understanding. While
politics has occasionally encroached, history has shown that
when such limitations of academic freedom occur, they can
undermine the reputation of the university and of the state it
serves.
Accordingly, faculty members are now asking legislators in
every state to listen to words like those of Menachem Magidor,
president of Hebrew University of Jerusalem, as he defended
"the diversity and pluralism" of his institution in a recent
letter to The New York Times. The legislative
committee gestured in that direction when it added another
codicil -- on state support for private institutions -- to the
budget. "
The North Carolina, Minnesota, and Missouri legislatures --
and, indeed, legislatures, boards, and those of us on campuses
everywhere -- should be so bold. Thus, although the development of
the field of religious studies as an academic discipline over
the past 30 years has been marked by intense debate on issues
of coverage and balance, the result has been the enrichment of
undergraduate and graduate curriculums throughout the nation. And they
have decried the physical invasion of campuses in Israel and
in the Palestinian territories alike. Ever
since the founding of most land-grant institutions, in the
mid-19th century, state legislatures have refrained from using
state dollars to encourage or inhibit the teaching or
discussion of certain ideas on individual campuses. They
mistake study for advocacy, the presentation of ideas for
exercises in conversion, and the university as a franchise for
particular doctrines or ideologies.
More recently, the University of Missouri System's
appropriation was docked some $150,000 in reaction to the
decision by the director of the public-television station on
the Columbia campus to prevent personnel from wearing flag
pins on camera, and in reaction to the work of Harris Mirkin,
a professor on the Kansas City campus.
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