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Julia Dent - Meredith College

UNC Cracks Down on Religious Group, Students Fight Back

by Julia Dent - Meredith College on March 8, 2012

The University of North Carolina at Greensboro has determined that a Christian club called “Make Up Your Own Mind” isn’t religious, and in order for the club to be recognized by the university, it must allow students from other belief systems to become members and leaders. Alliance Defense Fund attorney Jeremy Tedesco filed a federal lawsuit on the club’s behalf on February 29.

The Make Up Your Own Mind club has been trying to be distinguished as a religious club for months. Members presented their request with evidence in their constitution that they indeed are a religious group, and they petitioned to be recognized under the university’s exemption policy, which states, “student groups that select their members on the basis of commitment to a set of beliefs (e.g., religious or political beliefs) may limit membership and participation in the group to students who, upon individual inquiry, affirm that they support the group’s goals and agree with its beliefs.”

“The key problem here is that it can be very difficult to distinguish between status and belief,” said Cameron Parker, a senior at UNC-Chapel Hill, “Especially in religious organizations, your religious beliefs are a core part of your identity and really give meaning to your ‘status’ as a member of a faith. So nondiscrimination policies that want to give deference to religious organizations but also want to protect specific statuses can be seriously tested.”

UNC-Greensboro denied the group’s application at first because officials claim that the club isn’t religious, despite the club having a religious mission and asking their members to agree their statement of “faith and beliefs about the value of innocent human life.” The Make Up Your Own Mind club has resubmitted its application to be recognized as a religious group. The university has not yet responded to the group’s new application.

“Saying that a Christian club isn’t religious is flatly absurd,” Jeremy Tedesco said, “especially when the university has granted its belief-based exception to numerous other clubs. The First Amendment forbids the government from determining what is and what is not ‘religious,’ yet the university is doing exactly this by telling a Christian group that it is not religious. The Constitution protects the right of all student groups to employ belief-based criteria in selecting their members and leaders.” He told Fox News, “We should get very nervous when the government decides it has the authority to determine what is and what isn’t religious. That’s a dangerous concept.”

The university has said that the club is “not affiliated with a church but rather a local non-profit organization,” although church affiliation is not required in order to be recognized as a religious organization. UNC-Greensboro has allowed other groups to be called religious without church affiliation.

UNC-Greensboro submitted a statement saying, “We are gathering information and assessing the allegations of the suit,” said the statement. “If we discover that the matter in question was handled improperly, we will swiftly take corrective actions.”

Vanderbilt University recently imposed a similar restriction on Christian student groups, which could force them to accept non-believers as members or even group leaders. Vanderbilt Chancellor Nicholas Zeppos said the university “does not seek to limit anyone’s freedom to practice his or her religion. We do, however, require all Vanderbilt registered student organizations to observe our nondiscrimination policy. That means membership in registered student organizations is open to everyone and that everyone, if desired, has the opportunity to seek leadership positions.”

Religious students have been alarmed by recent efforts to restrict religious liberty on college campuses in the name of “non-discrimination.” Whether these efforts hold up in court remains to be seen.

Fix Contributor Julia Dent is a freshman at Meredith College.

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Funny story: Conservative prof fired for telling joke

by Julia Dent - Meredith College on January 18, 2012

When Robert Klein Engler–a conservative professor at Roosevelt University–was fired from his position, he was upset. He was frustrated. And he was completely in the dark.

University officials refused to specify exactly why he had been let go, and did not divulge the details until two months after the firing, in August of 2010. The reason? He told a politically incorrect joke. Now Engler is suing the university and its union for failing to protect his academic freedom.

Initially, the university’s official word on the firing was that Engler did not cooperate with its investigation of him. But according to Engler, there was no investigation, and the university never informed him of what they were investigating.

“After many written requests to know the charges against me so I could prepare an adequate defense, they refused to cooperate,” Engler said. “If the RU administration had just told me and the union what the false and baseless charges were, then this whole matter would have evaporated like dew on the grass when sunlight warms the morning.”

He is now suing both Roosevelt University and the Roosevelt Adjunct Faculty Organization, the union that he claims failed to protect his interests.

Engler had taught at Roosevelt University since 1999. In May 2010, he was told to attend a meeting to discuss a harassment complaint from “one or more students,” but the university would not tell him the nature of the complaint. Engler was fired in August of 2010 on the grounds that he would not participate in the investigation of the student’s complaint.

“The administration claims I did not cooperate with their investigation,” he said. “Any reasonable person knows with this charge university administrators have turned things upside down. Add to that, if you can fire someone by e-mail, certainly, you can cooperate with an investigation by e-mail.”

It took months for the university to explain the nature of the harassment charge, and it involved only one student, who had complained about a joke Engler made in his City and Citizenship course. The joke was told during a discussion of Arizona’s immigration law. In jest, Engler said, “A group of sociologists did a poll in Arizona regarding the state’s new immigration law. Sixty percent said they were in favor, and 40 percent said, ‘No hablo Ingles.’”

A single student was sufficiently offended to complain to the department head. At that point, the complaint became a harassment charge—a point Engler refuses to concede.

“No reasonable person believes reporting a joke in class is harassment,” he said.

Upon hearing the reason for the harassment charge, Engler appealed to the Roosevelt Adjunct Faculty Organization. The union promised to help him, and said that refusal to cooperate with a university investigation was not sufficient grounds for termination. But RAFO gradually ceased communicating with Engler and “at some point dropped any adversarial pretense and simply colluded with Roosevelt,” according to the lawsuit.

RAFO denied these charges.

“Despite the union’s efforts to urge Mr. Engler to attend the meeting and receive union representation, Mr. Engler refused to attend and was eventually terminated for failing to cooperate with a university investigation,” said a union spokesperson. RAFO is “confident that Mr. Engler’s latest claim will also be dismissed.”

Roosevelt University declined to comment on the situation.

According to the website for Engler’s defense fund, the lawsuit is about “standing up and seeking fair treatment against two powerful forces: politically correct academia, and an arrogant union establishment that long ago lost sight of its proper mission.”

Fix Contributor Julia Dent is a freshman at Meredith College.

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