SALT LAKE CITY — In a settlement for a lawsuit alleging anti-Mormon bias, the University of Utah has agreed to allow students to withdraw from certain academic activities because of their religious beliefs.
The lawsuit was brought four years ago by Christina Axson-Flynn, 24, who left the theater department after claiming she feared retaliation from professors for refusing to recite lines that contained the F-word or took "the Lord's name in vain."
The settlement forces 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. A professor, dean and university vice president ultimately can approve or reject a student's request.
"I feel like this is a victory for everyone, because not one side wins," Axson-Flynn said Wednesday before a news conference to announce the settlement. "It accomplishes everything I set out to do when I started this whole process."
Axson-Flynn will also be reimbursed for $3,000 to $4,000 in tuition expenses and allowed to return to the school, though she said she would attend college somewhere else.
Axson-Flynn, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, claimed the university violated her freedoms of speech and religion and she feared retaliation from professors for not reciting lines that offended her.
The ruling comes a day before further legal action in the case was scheduled. A lower court ruling was reversed in February by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, which remanded the case to trial.
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 and required the use of profane language only as an academic exercise.
Axson-Flynn's lawyer James McConkie said the two sides had been working on the settlement for about two months.
Axson-Flynn said she still wanted to pursue acting, and didn't think she would have trouble in the industry because of her beliefs. She said both her mother, a stage actress, and her father, who has acted in films, have been able to make it.
"I wouldn't have a hard time at all making a career in acting holding to morals, no matter what those morals were," she said.