Freedom of the Colleges essays

Freedom of the Colleges essays 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 ...