Comments on: Just like the olden days

By: jab

jab — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 05:24:38 +0000

How about Ms. Keeton shouldn’t get a degree because she is wrong.
It is one thing to believe that *acting* on homosexuality is immoral, the
very fact that someone is homosexual is NOT a choice (this is, in fact, the modern
view of the Catholic church… homosexuality, per se, is not a choice, but acting on it is).

Should a biology or geoscience department be able to deny a degree to a student who does
not believe in evolution or thinks the Earth is 6000 years old? Can an astrophysics department deny a degree
to a student who thinks the universe is only 6000 years old and god made
“starlight appear as if it has been traveling for millions
of years” to test our faith? (yes, a fundamentalist told me that).

To what extent can science departments refuse to endorse students who hold patently unscientific beliefs?

By: Eveningsun

Eveningsun — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 18:58:42 +0000

Are there cases where a student will demonstrate meet all the formal requirements for certification in some field, while also demonstrating that they harbor beliefs that are, in some practical sense, disqualifying? Sure. Maybe such cases are best handled at the point when the student needs references and letters of recommendation. I don’t see anything wrong with telling the truth to a prospective employer, with saying (say) “This student passed all his classes, etc. But you should know that he is a white supremacist,” or “This student performed well academically, but you should know that, because of her religious convictions, she considers homosexuality a sin and believes in the effectiveness of conversion therapy.”

The instructor can’t legitimately invoke a student’s beliefs as a bar to passing a class or graduating. But letters of recommendation are a different story altogether.

By: ForTheSakeOfArgument

ForTheSakeOfArgument — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 17:30:47 +0000

For the sake of argument, if the grad-student were a member of a church that taught that caucasians are of a superior “race” created to rule others while african and asian “races” are innately inferior in certain characteristics and so created to be ruled by the superior race, would the class instructor, program director, and the university still be wrong to require that the grad-student sign something stating the equality of all though it would clearly conflict with the teachings of this notional grad-student’s notional church?

By: david foster

david foster — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 12:07:10 +0000

There’s an old German song dating from the peasant rebellions of the middle ages: Die Gedanken Sind Frei (the thoughts remain free), in some versions “only the thoughts remain free.” The objective of many academic administrators seems to be that *not even* the thoughts remain free.