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Bapist College in Louisiana Bans 2 Books and Requires Reviews of Textbook Plans
Ohanian Comment: This sounds rather like the policy imposed by the federal Reading First inspectors--and the California state university symstem which vets the syllabuses of professors of reading.
A new textbook-review policy at a Baptist college in Pineville, La., has raised the ire of some professors and students, and other advocates of academic freedom. Louisiana College's Board of Trustees announced on Tuesday that all professors teaching courses this spring must have their textbook choices approved by their department heads as well as by the college's vice president for academic affairs.
"This new policy violates our academic freedom," Constance A. Douglas, an professor of English, said on Wednesday. "Students can't pursue truth unless they have the freedom to ask questions and to read literature that reflects all of human experience."
The new policy upholds a decision made in September by the college's president, William Rory Lee, to have two books removed from the college's bookstore. The books were previously used in a philosophy course taught by Ms. Douglas and Frederick Downing, a professor of religion.
Mr. Lee ordered the books removed, he said, after a student and a board member complained that profane language in The Road Less Traveled, a self-help book by M. Scott Peck, and a love scene described in A Lesson Before Dying, a novel by Ernest Gaines, clashed with the Christian values espoused by the college.
Banning textbooks for use in college courses means that students are "getting the short end of the stick," said Jason R. Schwartz, a sophomore majoring in biology. The new policy, he said, might deprive students of studying books that would be valuable to their education. "It totally changes the academic excellence that is a staple here," he said.
"Establishing such a policy is basically inconsistent with generally accepted principles for academic freedom," said B. Robert Kreiser, a senior program officer with the American Association of University Professors. Constraining professors in their textbook choices "seems to be in contravention to the professed commitment to academic freedom" of the college itself, he added.
Fred A. Malone, chairman of the board's academic-affairs committee, defended the textbook-review policy. He explained that by requiring faculty members to work with "more experienced" department heads in selecting their course texts, the policy strikes a "proper balance between academic freedom and academic responsibility."
"Academic freedom cannot be absolute in a Christian-college context," he said, noting that it was the board's intent to help ensure that the college "functions in harmony" with religious precepts set forth in the Baptist Faith and Message. That document contains doctrines adopted in 2000 by Baptist organizations nationwide, including the Louisiana Baptist Convention, an association of Baptist churches in the state.
The convention selects the 34 members of the college's board. Ms. Douglas and others said that they suspect the new policy was driven by an increase in conservative members of the convention, who in turn appointed more-conservative trustees to the board. The trend mirrors an increase in the number of conservative members of the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest national Baptist organization in the United States.
Mr. Malone conceded that the new policy may have been spurred by the changing makeup of the board, but he would not say whether the board contains more conservatives now than in years past. Officials at the Louisiana Baptist Convention declined to speak publicly on the issue.
In recent years, several Baptist colleges have cut ties with state Baptist conventions over issues of control and governance.
Mr. Lee said, however, that the relationship between Louisiana College and the state convention is strong. The Board of Trustees selected by the convention, he said, "has continually kept its focus both on academic quality and spiritual growth of the students of our institution."
— Alice Gomstyn
Louisiana Bans 2 Books and Requires Reviews of Textbook Plans
Chronicle of Higher Education
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http://chronicle.com/prm/daily/2003/12/2003120402n.htm
INDEX OF OUTRAGES
Pages: 380
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