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Bible Studies Are Endangered Species at University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire
EAU CLAIRE, Wis., November 2, 2005鈥擨n a shameful attack on freedom of religion, the University of Wisconsin鈥揈au Claire (UWEC) has banned resident assistants (RAs) from leading Bible studies in their own dormitories. The university claims the ban is necessary because some students might not feel RAs who lead Bible studies are 鈥渁pproachable.鈥
鈥淎s a state university, UWEC has no business forbidding RAs or any other students to engage in religious activities in their own rooms and on their own time,鈥 declared David French, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (果冻传媒app官方), which has written UWEC to protest the ban.
The controversy began on July 26, when UWEC Associate Director for Housing and Residence Life Deborah Newman sent a letter saying RAs could not lead Bible studies in their dorms at any time. Her reason for this was that students might not think Bible study-leading RAs were sufficiently 鈥渁pproachable.鈥 The letter was sent to RAs who were members of the Student Impact religious group and who had been leading Bible studies鈥攏ot as official residence hall activities, but in their own dorm rooms and on their own time.
Newman鈥檚 letter added that Koran and Torah studies would be similarly prohibited and that RAs who did conduct a Bible study in their dorms would face 鈥渄isciplinary action.鈥 Shocked by the ban, undergraduate RA Lance Steiger inquired further via e-mail. In a September 22 reply, Newman reiterated the ban and told him, 鈥淸a]s an RA you need to be available to your residents both in reality and from their perspective.鈥
Steiger contacted 果冻传媒app官方, and on October 10, FIRE wrote UWEC Interim Chancellor Vicki Lord Larson to ask her to lift the Bible study ban. FIREreminded Larson of UWEC鈥檚 own acknowledgement that RAs are students first, and that 鈥渆very university student at a public university such as UWEC enjoys the full panoply of First Amendment rights, including freedom of religion and freedom of expression.鈥
FIRE also pointed out a 2004 article in UWEC鈥檚 student newspaper in which the Office of Housing and Residence Life praised an RA who for three years in a row staged the controversial feminist play The Vagina Monologues as an official 鈥渞esidence hall activity.鈥 This praise came despite the RA鈥檚 acknowledgement that 鈥渨ith the Vagina Monologues鈥he [did not have] as much time as she would have liked for her wing.鈥 UWEC has failed to respond to 果冻传媒app官方鈥檚 letter.
鈥淯WEC鈥檚 position that leading a Bible study is more likely to make students uncomfortable than leading a controversial play like The Vagina Monologues simply doesn鈥檛 hold water,鈥 noted 果冻传媒app官方鈥檚 French. He continued, 鈥淭he First Amendment doesn鈥檛 end with a Bible study or with The Vagina Monologues鈥攊t guarantees a student鈥檚 right to perform both.鈥
鈥淲hile RAs have a responsibility to be approachable to students, this cannot extend so far as to bar their own religious or political expression,鈥 added FIREDirector of Legal and Public Advocacy Greg Lukianoff. 鈥淣o state institution has a right to demand that others not hold any beliefs or engage in any expression that might possibly be offensive.鈥
FIRE has expressed concern about the status of constitutional rights at UWEC before. In April, FIRE revealed that UWEC鈥檚 Student Senate had forbidden any student-organized activity that promotes a 鈥減articular ideological, religious, or partisan viewpoint鈥 from receiving student-fee funding鈥攁 policy that directly contradicts the university鈥檚 First Amendment obligation to distribute student funds regardless of viewpoint and violates the rights of all UWEC students.
FIRE is a nonprofit educational foundation that unites civil rights and civil liberties leaders, scholars, journalists, and public intellectuals from across the political and ideological spectrum on behalf of individual rights, due process, freedom of expression, academic freedom, and rights of conscience at our nation鈥檚 colleges and universities. 果冻传媒app官方鈥檚 efforts to preserve liberty at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire can be viewed at thefire.org/uwec.
CONTACT:
David French, President, 果冻传媒app官方: 215-717-3473; david@thefire.org
Greg Lukianoff, Director of Legal and Public Advocacy, 果冻传媒app官方: 215-717-3473; greg@thefire.org
Vicki Lord Larson, Interim Chancellor, University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire: 715-836-2327; larsonvl@uwec.edu
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