Last summer, Ball State University’s President Jo Ann Gora declared the theory of intelligent design not science, but rather a religious belief, effectively banning educators during science classes from delving into the notion that an intelligence of some sort helped form the universe and life on Earth.
Now some Indiana lawmakers are saying not so fast.
The Star Press reports:
Four legislators, including Sen. Dennis Kruse, R-Auburn, chairman of the Education Committee, say “serious questions have been raised about whether academic freedom, free speech and religious liberty have been respected by BSU in its treatment of professor Hedin, its subsequent establishment of a speech code restricting faculty speech on intelligent design, and its cancellation of professor Hedin’s … class,” the lawmakers said in a letter to Gora this week.
The letter also expresses concerns about whether a faculty review panel appointed to investigate complaints against Hedin “was filled with persons with conflicts of interest, who were predisposed to be hostile to his viewpoint.”
Because the university has declined to release the review panel’s report, “we feel unable to judge whether the investigation was fair and impartial,” the lawmakers wrote.
The letter gives Gora until the end of business on March 24 to answer the following question: “Does the policy forbid science professors from explaining either their support or rejection of intelligent design in answer to student questions about intelligent design in class?”
Thankfully lawmakers are willing to fight to ensure academic freedom is upheld.
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