Posted on 07/24/2007 9:32:20 AM PDT by Utah Girl
If West Virginia University student David Haws had chosen to go to school elsewhere, it's unlikely the Mormon would have been forced to choose between his religion and his state-funded merit scholarship.
"This is not common," said Kim Farah, a spokeswoman for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in a telephone interview Monday from Utah. "Deferring scholarships until missionaries complete their missions is a common practice that many universities follow."
Farah said in her eight years working in public relations for the church, she'd never heard of a similar case, adding, "and we would have known about it."
Haws is suing the state's PROMISE scholarship board for denying him a leave of absence to serve a church mission for two years. In a lawsuit filed Thursday in federal court in Charleston by the American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia, Haws claimed violation of his First Amendment right to freely exercise his religion.
Though she could not comment on the nature of the case, Farah said missionary work is essential to young Mormons' lives.
"It's quite important not only to the church itself but also to the young men and women who serve missions," Farah said.
Men serve missions at age 19, and women serve at age 21.
Haws, who is completing the second year of his mission this summer, has been helping disadvantaged people in eastern Nevada, eastern California and western Arizona. The Bridgeport native, a former Bridgeport High School valedictorian, wants to see his scholarship reinstated so that he can continue his education during the 2007 fall semester.
Jack Toney, director of state financial aid programs who oversees PROMISE, said he cannot comment because his office has not seen the lawsuit yet.
Haws, a political science major, would not have been asked to give up his scholarship at a school in Utah, where the LDS Church is based, or in Georgia, where the state-funded merit scholarship movement was born.
The Georgia Student Finance Commission administers that state's student financial aid programs, including the HOPE Scholarship Program. Like West Virginia's PROMISE scholarship, the HOPE scholarship is a state-funded merit scholarship for college.
"Once a student becomes eligible for a HOPE scholarship, they are in the system indefinitely until graduation. In other words, if a student decides to take a leave of absence from school for any reason, they will be allowed to return," said Monet Robinson, a spokeswoman for the Georgia commission.
The University of Utah is a public institution that is comparable to WVU in size; it has 28,619 students while WVU has 27,115. An admission official estimated about half of University of Utah students are LDS, although no data are collected on student religion because the school is publicly funded.
However, schools in Utah have a much different approach to Mormon missions.
"We support participation in broadening the student's all-around development and service," said Angela Wimmer, manager of scholarships at the U.
"We have a very large number of students who actually apply for a deferral of their scholarships for humanitarian service, and the service to their church falls under humanitarian service."
Wimmer cited other deferments such as Peace Corps and AmeriCorps service and Christian Scientists who serve their church.
According to the lawsuit, the PROMISE board rejected Haws' deferment request because it "had the potential for abuse by students who would use this type of leave for personal vacations."
Schools that accept LDS missions as an exemption say the only proof they require is a mission call, a document that is issued by the church's headquarters in Salt Lake City.
U. Associate Director of Admission Carolyn Dyson said the school can't guarantee in every case that the person who applies for an exemption goes on a mission. "But that doesn't happen very often," she said.
"If we get two or three people a year who don't go on their mission, and you're talking about hundreds of students that say they are going to go out, that would be very exceptional."
“Haws claimed violation of his First Amendment right to freely exercise his religion.”
He only need relinquish the scholarship to practice his religion. While his religious freedom is guaranteed by the BOR, scholarships are not. I see no merit for the lawsuit on constitutional issues.
Except as James pointed out in the above post, the same committee has granted other religious students exemptions. There’s the rub.
“In a lawsuit filed Thursday in federal court in Charleston by the American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia, Haws claimed violation of his First Amendment right to freely exercise his religion.”
Guess the ACLJ was too busy to help.
Bonus points for the Spongebob quote in your signature line, though. "No! It's for the customer!"
“Haws was told that Promise leaves of absence are only granted for family medical or bereavement purposes, or to people who serve in the military.’
By failing to enumerate what pursuits are NOT eligible for LOA, is the university de facto discriminating against those pursuits? Yes. But since religion is only one of innumerable pursuits not listed, it’s hard to see denial of religious freedom as being a motive in the process, though it and all the unenumerated pursuits are casualties as a result.
But these activities per se are not forbidden. One just cannot return from them with scholarship funding intact. He was forced to choose, and he chose, knowing what would happen.
How does this compare with someone deciding, after graduating from, say, the US Naval Academy, that they cannot remain in the military for religious reasons, then refusing to repay the govt for their college tuition?
Is it religious discrimination to insist they surrender assets for choosing a religious outlook?
“From the article it seems that these deferments are given for other religions”
Unless I read it wrong, it was a spokesman for the Utah university who said that, not the school being sued.
This is another poorly written Deseret News article. They cannot even provide basic facts—like, for what specifically does the PROMISE program allow deferments? Have any other West Virginia students received religious deferments?
The writer answers none of the essential questions. Instead, they bring in the HOPE scholarship from a completely different state (irrelevant) and they quote a University of Utah official (completely irrelevant).
I read this this morning and thought, “What’s the big deal?”
Unless there is some evidence that this kid is being treated differently, there is no story and no grounds for a lawsuit.
I'm not spotting that in the story, and since you have both commented on it, I'd appreciate it if one of you could point out where W.Va has granted such exemptions.
The excerpt I quoted on post 4 is from another news source, and implies that WV has never granted an exception on religious grounds.
Ooops. Sorry. Post 7, not 4.
I don’t disagree with your conclusions. But it doesn’t support what the other two said any more than the original post seems to.
So I’ll repeat my question to them: Where has PROMISE granted exceptions for other religions?
I agree, it is a very poorly written article. It is actually from AP, and the Deseret News published it.
I thought the National Gaurd granted leaves of absense for Mormon missionary service. I met missionary who was enrolled in the Gaurds. He was still obligated if there was an emergency and the Gaurd was activiated and was still required to fulfill his full contract when he returned from his mission. Anyone have more info. on the matter?
Farah works in the PR's dept. and hasn't given us enough information about the case. I'm guessing her job is interacting with the media not looking at the legal intricacies of the case. I am also wondering how Haws has the time to sue when he is on his mission? And as previously stated. Why the ACLU not the ACLJ? I'm guessing Haws sued and Farah is trying to leverage it into an awareness "PR" issue.
The ACLU is no friend of the Mormon church. THe LDS church is one of the few organizations that has been consistently effective against them on a number of issue. (Like when the ACLU dropped the Martin Cove lawsuit)
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