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UNC Still Facing Challenges on Summer Reading
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The University of North Carolina, although allowed academic freedom, still faces a lawsuit from a conservative Christian organization
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WASHINGTON,
Aug 23 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A Christian group will
continue to seek legal action against the University of North Carolina
for seeking to make a book on Islam required reading, its attorney
said Thursday.
"We are going back to the district court to pursue the
procedure," said Michael DePrimo, attorney for the conservative
American Family Association Center for Law and Policy, based in
Virginia.
The Association opposes the university's requirement that students
read "Approaching the Qur'an, the Early Revelations" by
Michael Sells, a religion professor at Haverford College in
Pennsylvania.
"We believe that the university engaged in an unconstitutional
requirement," DePrimo said.
"Our constitution requires that a university will not be engaged
in any promotion of any particular religion.
"The university has to answer our complaint," he argued.
A University of North Carolina spokesman, Mike McFarland, said Sells'
book was selected after the September 11 terror strikes with the idea
of familiarizing students with Islam and avoiding misunderstandings.
On
campus Thursday, August 22, 2002, a university administration
committee of the state university system's Board of Governors that
helps oversee North Carolina's public universities agreed to support
academic freedom, according to the Charlotte Observer.
The
same committee, which according to its bylaws, is supposed to
guarantee academic freedom in the first place, earlier in the month on
August 9, voted against a similar resolution for academic freedom.
On
Thursday, the UNC committee unanimously agreed to "reaffirm its
commitment to academic freedom."
Board
Chairman Brad Wilson said after the meeting, "It's in place, it's
always been there and we stand firm on it."
Explaining
the reason for the earlier resolution defeat, the Board stated
administrative and procedural matters, coupled with the fear that
approval would affect the state budget allocating funds to the
university system, were the cause for defeating the resolution, and
not the issue of academic freedom itself.
According
to procedure, Wilson explained, the resolution had to have first been
recommended by a committee before it could be voted upon by the full
Board.
The
Board’s vote came two days after a North Carolina legislative
committee decided to block funds for the summer reading program. The
legislative decision led to criticism from academics and the New York
Times.
"This
interference by the Legislature reminds many North Carolinians of the
early 1960s, when lawmakers barred Communists from speaking on state
university campuses...." the Times wrote in a Monday editorial.
"The ban was repealed ... but still stands as an embarrassment to
North Carolinians who value free speech."
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