Friday, March 14, 2014

State Legislators' Questions On Ball State Censorship Now Covered By the Press

The AP story is here:

"In order to determine if legislative action is required, we feel obligated to investigate whether BSU has acted in accord with state educational policy, legal requirements, and BSU's own published standards," the letter said.
The legislators wrote that they also were "disturbed by reports that while you restrict faculty speech on intelligent design, BSU authorized a seminar that teaches 'Science Must Destroy Religion.'"

This article has a quote from the DI:

“Unlike BSU, we favor freedom for professors to express their views on controversial issues. But if BSU insists on censoring professors who favor intelligent design, we insist BSU comply with the Constitution and apply its speech ban equally to all professors,” the organization said.

Ball State is heading for a reputation as a leader of academic censorship.

Maybe I will come up with a list of my own questions for Ball State, for example: Are students permitted to read Isaac Newton's Principia in science class, despite its endorsement of intelligent design?



       

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Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Ball State University: Will It Get a Reputation as a Leading Center of Censorship?

It would seem that Ball State is heading for a very embarrassing reputation.  Its president seems to have adopted a double-standard at odds with the best science and the best philosophy.  Would they ban Thomas Nagel from teaching there?  New slogan:  "Helping students think inside the box"?

From a letter from state legislators:
We are disturbed by reports that while you restrict faculty speech on intelligent design, BSU authorized a seminar that teaches "Science Must Destroy Religion." Your policy banning professors from expressing their views on intelligent design raises many troubling questions. One of the most important is: 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?


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