A University of Utah committee on Wednesday unveiled its draft version of a new policy that aims to strike a balance between preserving academic freedom and recognizing deeply held beliefs of university students.
The "Accommodations Policy" was mandated as part of the school's settlement of a civil-rights lawsuit brought by Christina Axson-Flynn, a former theater student who sued the school after she was forbidden from omitting profane language from an in-class exercise.
The policy sets forth a process by which students can request exemptions from curricular exercises they feel collide with their "sincerely held core beliefs," as well as an appeals process if the exemption is denied.
In her January 2000 lawsuit, Axson-Flynn, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said she was discriminated against because other students were granted exemptions from classwork for religious reasons. She alleged violations of her constitutional rights of free speech and free exercise of religion.
The policy seeks to prevent another similar situation by setting forth the intent of the university in granting reasonable accommodations in a formalized manner while still preserving faculty members' right to teach classes as they see fit.
"The university works to uphold its collective values by fostering free speech, broadening fields of inquiry and encouraging generations of new knowledge that challenges, shapes and enriches our collective and individual understandings," the policy states.
The policy will be distributed to members of the U.'s Academic Senate for their consideration and is scheduled for debate at a Jan. 10 meeting.
Senate president Larry DeVries, a mechanical engineering professor, said he is comfortable with the policy as it is now written.
"I'm still a very, very strong believer in academic freedom — that faculty members should be able to teach those things they feel are important for the students to know," DeVries said. "But on the other hand, I'm also a strong believer in religious freedom."
The draft appears to have struck a fair balance between the two values, he said.
"I think they've done a good job at that, but we'll have to wait and see what (members of the Academic Senate) think," DeVries said. "I'm sure that when we discuss this . . . there are going to be people who feel strongly that it goes too far and there are going to be people who feel strongly that it didn't go far enough in preserving those deeply held religious beliefs."
The senate has the opportunity to make minor revisions to the policy or send the entire thing back to the committee for a complete overhaul, something committee chairman Katharine Coles hopes will not happen.
"We have hopes that the senate will find that this policy, or something not too different from this, is acceptable," said Coles, an English professor and past president of the Academic Senate.
Once the senate approves the policy, it will advance to the university's board of trustees. After that, the university will take steps to implement the policy and educate students and faculty about its use.
Full implementation isn't expected before next fall, but faculty members are already using the ideas set forth in the policy informally, U. general counsel John Morris said. Both he and Coles said they have been approached by professors looking for guidance in handling situations with their students.
Axson-Flynn attorney James McConkie said the policy adheres to the language of the legal settlement but said he still has some concerns with specific language in the draft, which he has communicated to the university.
"The important thing is that we're moving in the right direction, formally, for the first time on this sensitive issue in our community," McConkie said.
Through the 20-plus meetings with faculty, students and members of the community, Coles said the six-member committee identified four key priorities — to uphold academic freedom and integrity; to uphold the values of respect and diversity within the community; to uphold rights to individual freedom of expression; and to preserve the flexibility of faculty and their ability to treat students as individuals.
The committee also came to realize that everyone, professors and students alike, had a common goal in reaching an acceptable policy, Coles said.
"The students and the faculty are not on opposite sides on this," she said. "Faculty also have sincerely held core beliefs; students also have an interest in upholding the academic quality of the university."
Former theater department chairman Xan Johnson, a named defendant in the Axson-Flynn lawsuit, said the policy sets forth valuable avenues of communication between faculty and students.
The policy, he said, is an "attempt to build a better community on campus."
E-mail: awelling@desnews.com