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Looking for the positive.As someone whose research focuses on refugees, she said it felt to her as an invitation to “be creative” in how she applies the teachings of Jesus Christ to her work.
“We have examples of how he treated the stranger or someone who was physically suffering,” she said, “but how do we apply that to our program or our social welfare policy?”
She says:Jacqueline Pfeffer Merrill, director of the Campus Free Expression Project at the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington-based think tank,
I guess it happens a lot, for private schools. Probably, quite often, for religious schools.If there is anything BYU professors can take comfort in, Merrill offered, it’s that they are far from alone in finding themselves in the middle of an often tense debate about how much latitude schools — especially private ones — have when it comes to shaping policies meant to preserve and uphold their identities.
Battles have broken out on campuses across the country over policies relating to everything from LGBTQ rights to diversity, equity, inclusion and COVID-19.
“The questions I see BYU wrestling with,” she said, “are really typical.”
Perhaps hiring decisions are also affected, in addition to those for promotion and tenure.Dr. Sunstoned wrote: ↑Wed Feb 01, 2023 5:09 amI gather from this article that department chairs and deans at Brigham Young University are under pressure to revise their criteria for promotion to better reward faculty whose work supports the teachings of the school’s owner, which we know is the church.
The instruction to do so came in a speech given to department heads in November by Justin Collings, who is the the newly appointed YP of faculty development. Collings stated that the guidelines for promotion and tenure should not “merely mimic analogous documents at other schools” but instead “reflect, reinforce and propel our unique and inspired mission.”
Throughout history one of the first things a totalitarian regime does is suppress freedoms. Freedom of assembly, freedom of speech. And they start at the universities. history is rife with examples, Russia in the 1920s, Germany in the 1930s, Iran and Ron DeSantis today.
There is a long list of professors who have been pushed out, often for no other reason than a social media post supporting LGBTQ rights. These things have been noted by the press and by the academic community, and it hurts the reputation of the school. I am really disturbed by this trend.
youv've raised some interesting comparisons, Dr. Sunstoned. It is a concern of mine with regards to religion--this energy to control people and limit freedoms. I'd say a large threat to our comfortable way of life today is Christian nationalism--this hope to de-secularize and shout out the diversity of thought we prize. This move at BYU on a smaller scale feels in line with that thinking for sure. Its really difficult when players involved, particularly those with power, think they are on the right side of good and bad. On the conservative side we need to see a Barry Goldwater type to help straighten them out--Goldwater retorted, "Every good Christian ought to kick Falwell right in the ass."Dr. Sunstoned wrote: ↑Wed Feb 01, 2023 5:09 amI gather from this article that department chairs and deans at Brigham Young University are under pressure to revise their criteria for promotion to better reward faculty whose work supports the teachings of the school’s owner, which we know is the church.
The instruction to do so came in a speech given to department heads in November by Justin Collings, who is the the newly appointed YP of faculty development. Collings stated that the guidelines for promotion and tenure should not “merely mimic analogous documents at other schools” but instead “reflect, reinforce and propel our unique and inspired mission.”
Throughout history one of the first things a totalitarian regime does is suppress freedoms. Freedom of assembly, freedom of speech. And they start at the universities. history is rife with examples, Russia in the 1920s, Germany in the 1930s, Iran and Ron DeSantis today.
There is a long list of professors who have been pushed out, often for no other reason than a social media post supporting LGBTQ rights. These things have been noted by the press and by the academic community, and it hurts the reputation of the school. I am really disturbed by this trend.