Today, Discovery Institute’s Dr. John West, provided a helpful Q & A write-up on Evolution News and Views. The article, entitled Clarifying the Issues at Ball State: Some Questions and Answers addresses the most salient points about the recent letter sent to Ball State’s President, Dr. Joanne Gora, which I wrote about here on UD yesterday. Today’s article from Dr. West clarifies the issues and makes clear that the aim is to support academic freedom for all professors – both those who oppose ID and those who advocate it; both those who advocate atheism, and those who do not. However, as Dr. West’s article also makes clear, if BSU opts to continue to enforce this new policy, then it must do so fairly and not show favoritism for certain viewpoints, while silencing others. As things stand, there are several current courses that do, in fact, violate the new policy in the exact same way that Dr. Eric Hedin’s course did. And there are courses that do, in fact, advocate for certain religious viewpoints, contrary to the new policy. Therefore, Ball State must either conduct an investigation into these courses and professors equivalent to that conducted into Dr. Hedin’s class, or BSU can simply rescind the policy and assure academic freedom for all professors, regardless of their courses and personal positions.
Dr. West’s article today makes all this very clear. I suggest those interested take some time to read it. Also, those so inclined are encouraged to send a message to the Ball State University Board of Trustees supporting the requests of the Discovery Institute.