U. pushes accommodation

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.