A Virginia religious college has been denied
accreditation by the institution that effectively controls all programs
authorized under the federal Higher Education Act, including Stafford student
loans and research money.
The decision by the American Academy for Liberal Education was made on the
basis of the school's view on creation and its overall "biblical
worldview," said Michael Farris, president of Patrick Henry College, the
school affected by the decision.
"AALE has engaged in blatant viewpoint discrimination," said Farris.
The academy's April 30 rejection letter to the school explained that the
decision to deny accreditation was based on a determination that the school
didn't meet the definition of liberal education, which includes standards on
"liberty of thought and freedom of speech," along with other general
education and curriculum standards.
According to Jeffrey Wallin, the academy's president, the denial was not based
on the fact that the school teaches creationism.
"We have religious schools that are members of our organization that teach
creationism, but they teach it in the theology department; they don't teach it
in the science department," said Wallin.
Also, said Wallin, the school's statement of principles was inconsistent with
openness in intellectual inquiry because it says, "you can teach anything
you want in biology, as long as you agree that, as the Bible says, the world
was created in six 24-hour days.
Another of the school's statements of belief, that only federalist, bicameral
constitutions are acceptable to God, "would mean that parliamentary
systems aren't," said Wallin. That "seemed a little narrow."
"If you set out ahead of time and say, 'by the way here are all the
answers and none of the others are acceptable,' that's a problem," Wallin
explained.
But Farris believes the academy is not living up to its own standards.
"They claim we violate their standards on freedom of thought, yet that is
the essence of their own decision. They are denying PHC its freedom to think,
believe and speak differently from the norm of academia," said Farris.
Moreover, "they are wrong in their conclusion that we do not teach about
evolution," said Farris. "We do; but honest science shows that it is
simply an untenable theory.
"They were also wrong when they assert that believing and teaching
creationism inhibits the acquisition of basic knowledge," added Farris.
"The problem is not what our students know [but] what our faculty and
students believe."
Farris said the school would go through the academy's appeals process to try to
have the denial reversed.
The academy was given the authority to judge and accredit liberal-arts colleges
in 1995 by the federal Department of Education. The academy's founders set out
to turn the liberal arts curriculum away from education fads and remedial
classes and instead back to a traditional curriculum that emphasizes
literature, history and philosophy.
The list of founders includes established academics like Edwin O. Wilson, a
Pulitzer Prize-winning Harvard University science professor; Jacques Barzun, a
Columbia University philosopher and historian; and Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, an
Emory University historian.