The University of Utah has unveiled its draft version of a new policy aimed at maintaining academic freedom while accommodating the beliefs of university students.
The move comes as part of the school’s settlement in a lawsuit brought by a former drama student, Christina Axson-Flynn, who quit school after refusing to recite lines that offended her.
The settlement forced the university to write and implement a religious-accommodation policy for all departments that will formalize the process of opting out of exercises because of religious beliefs.
The draft policy, unveiled Dec. 1, essentially tells students how they can seek accommodations to course requirements they feel collide with their “sincerely held core beliefs” and how they can appeal their denials, if need be.
The policy focuses on accommodations for course attendance and course content. It advises students to register only for courses in which they have no scheduling conflicts. It also urges students to tell instructors early in the course of any religious obligations, activities or scheduling demands that might conflict with attendance.
The draft says students should take courses that challenge them intellectually and personally. However, if course demands clash with core beliefs, they should consider dropping the class within the permitted period. If the conflict arises later in the course, they can seek an accommodation in writing, with a copy to the department head.
“The university does not have to anticipate every issue a student may have,” said Katharine Coles, an English professor who led the seven-member Accommodation Policy Committee. “It will be up to the student to bring that to the attention of his/her instructor.”
The policy warns that the school assumes no obligation to ensure students are able to complete a major. For example, the school would not allow those who get queasy at the sight of blood to bypass skills needed for a medical degree.
The policy will be distributed to members of the school’s Academic Senate and is scheduled for debate at a Jan. 10 meeting.
Axson-Flynn’s January 2000 lawsuit alleged that the school had an anti-Mormon bias. As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, she claimed she was discriminated against because she feared retaliation from professors for refusing to recite lines that contained the F-word or took “the Lord’s name in vain.”
U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell dismissed Axson-Flynn’s lawsuit in 2001, saying the offending words were part of a drama curriculum that did not take a position on religion.
That decision was reversed in February by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which remanded the case to trial. The settlement was reached in July.