The College Fix

In June, The College Fix reported on the story of Diana Jimenez, a pro-life student activist who was threatened and ordered to leave campus by a security guard because she was holding a graphic pro-life sign.

[The security official] then threatened to prevent her from attending her graduation ceremony the following week.

“I’m telling you here,” he said. “You are supposed to graduate next week. If I kick you off this campus, you cannot graduate. If I tell you you can’t have a physical presence on this campus, you can’t come in here.”

Now after a media firestorm provoked by this story, and after weeks of conversations with alumni and leaders in the pro-life movement, Biola president Barry Corey has issued an apology to Diana Jimenez and to pro-life activists generally.

One of the pro-life activists involved in those conversations was Marc Newman, who has posted an article on his blog, detailing the steps the university has taken:

Like most pro-life advocates, upon reviewing the video, we were stunned to see the way in which Ms. Jimenez was treated. We were deeply dismayed by the decision of Susan Elliot, the director of the nursing program, to refuse Ms. Jimenez letters of recommendation from any of the nursing faculty – despite the fact that she was not only a student in good standing, but so much so that her picture was used on the nursing program’s web page (though it was scrubbed right after the incident). Near the end of the video, seen, as of this writing, nearly 17,500 times, an update frame occurs to alert viewers to Elliot’s actions regarding the withholding of letters of recommendation. It concerns us that, even though Elliot’s retributory action was overturned by the administration many weeks ago, there has been to date no additional editing of the video to reflect this change.

Ultimately, the problem at Biola was not about the university’s statement of faith regarding the sanctity of human life. The real problem at Biola was that a fourth-year nursing student could complete that program, yet remain totally unaware of the grisly reality of abortion or the persuasive arguments that support a pro-life perspective. It took exposure to those images, displayed at a student-sponsored pro-life event which drew only a handful of participants, to awaken her to the need to rouse her fellow students to action. And if Diana’s ignorance of abortion was typical in Nursing, what about students in Music, Communication, English, or Biblical Studies?

As a Christian university, Biola understands confession, repentance, forgiveness, reconciliation and restoration. President Corey has confessed Biola’s wrongdoing in a humble, frank, and commendable way. And his letter demonstrates the fruit of repentance. Specifically, he firmly states that Biola University will make sure that no student graduates without fully understanding the rationale behind the sanctity of human life, which is one of Biola’s theological distinctives…

Read Newman’s full post here.

We at the Fix applaud Barry Corey and Biola University for correcting their errors in a way that seems genuine and forthright, and for renewing Biola’s commitment to the sanctity of life and to free speech.

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