The sky is falling: Blame the Christians – New column

Mark Morford, columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, writes that “hordes of easily terrified, mindless fundamentalist evangelical Christian lemmings have been bad for the soul of this country…” Wow, so how do you really feel, Mark? In an otherwise on-target assessment of youth culture, he connects problems in our nation’s education system with Christian lemmings. In my response, I note that those “lemmings” could help lead us out of the morass.

University of Delaware ends controversial residence life education program

I received an email from Robert Shibley, Vice President of FIRE, this evening indicating that the President of the University of Delaware had stopped the controversial residence life curriculum.

Here is the letter from UD President:

A Message to the University of Delaware Community

Nov. 1, 2007

The University of Delaware strives for an environment in which all people feel welcome to learn, and which supports intellectual curiosity, critical thinking, free inquiry and respect for the views and values of an increasingly diverse population. The University is committed to the education of students as citizens, scholars and professionals and their preparation to contribute creatively and with integrity to a global society. The purpose of the residence life educational program is to support these commitments.

While I believe that recent press accounts misrepresent the purpose of the residential life program at the University of Delaware, there are questions about its practices that must be addressed and there are reasons for concern that the actual purpose is not being fulfilled. It is not feasible to evaluate these issues without a full and broad-based review.

Upon the recommendation of Vice President for Student Life Michael Gilbert and Director of Residence Life Kathleen Kerr, I have directed that the program be stopped immediately. No further activities under the current framework will be conducted.

Vice President Gilbert will work with the University Faculty Senate and others to determine the proper means by which residence life programs may support the intellectual, cultural and ethical development of our students.

Patrick Harker

President

Here is an article from the Philadelphia Inquirer that gives student and faculty reaction to the program.

University of Delaware says, “there have been some missteps”

The University of Delaware appears to be taking seriously some of the concerns from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) regarding the student life ideological education program. In a letter from the school, Vice President for Student Life, Michael Gilbert, says

I do acknowledge that there have been some missteps with the implementation of our program. This is a new effort involving over two hundred staff. As with any University educational endeavor assessment and feedback measures have been established to identify issues or concerns. Each of the issues FIRE presents are currently under review. In fact, we recently became aware that students in several residence halls were told their participation is mandatory at these activities and we have taken steps to clarify this misconception and to notify students of their rights in this area.

Time will tell what their review brings but the group bringing the concerns public, FIRE, believes the letter to be insufficient.

FIRE’s Response: FIRE unequivocally stands by its description of the University of Delaware’s “curriculum” for student housing residents. We invite the public to view the full curriculum of the residence life program—available in PDF format on our website—in its entirety, and to judge for themselves whether we have misrepresented any aspect of the nature of that program through selective quotation. In fact, as readers will see upon examination, the concerns that we have raised pervade every one of the hundreds of pages that constitute the University of Delaware’s residence life curriculum.

From my initial glance, I do think FIRE has a point. There are some issues of definition and emphasis that go beyond raising issues but rather prescribe an acceptable point of view. This seems what one would expect at a sectarian school, but not at a taxpayer funded public school.

Developing…