Freedom of the Colleges
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 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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