Professor's Snub of Creationists Prompts U.S. Inquiry

New York Times ^ | 2/02/03 | NICK MADIGAN

[kattracks]

UBBOCK, Tex., Feb. 2 — A biology professor who insists that his students accept the tenets of human evolution has found himself the subject of Justice Department scrutiny.

Prompted by a complaint from the Liberty Legal Institute, a group of Christian lawyers, the department is investigating whether Michael L. Dini, an associate professor of biology at Texas Tech University here, discriminated against students on the basis of religion when he posted a demand on his Web site that students wanting a letter of recommendation for postgraduate studies "truthfully and forthrightly affirm a scientific answer" to the question of how the human species originated.

"The central, unifying principle of biology is the theory of evolution," Dr. Dini wrote. "How can someone who does not accept the most important theory in biology expect to properly practice in a field that is so heavily based on biology?"

That was enough for the lawyers' group, based in Plano, a Dallas suburb, to file a complaint on behalf of a 22-year-old Texas Tech student, Micah Spradling.

Mr. Spradling said he sat in on two sessions of Dr. Dini's introductory biology class and shortly afterward noticed the guidelines on the professor's Web site (www2.tltc.ttu.edu/dini/Personal/letters.htm).

Mr. Spradling said that given the professor's position, there was "no way" he would have enrolled in Dr. Dini's class or asked him for a recommendation to medical school.

"That would be denying my faith as a Christian," said Mr. Spradling, a junior raised in Lubbock who plans to study prosthetics and orthotics at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. "They've taken prayer out of schools and the Ten Commandments out of courtrooms, so I thought I had an opportunity to make a difference."

In an interview in his office, Dr. Dini pointed to a computer screen full of e-mail messages and said he felt besieged.

"The policy is not meant in any way to be discriminatory toward anyone's beliefs, but instead to ensure that people who I recommend to a medical school or a professional school or a graduate school in the biomedical sciences are scientists," he said. "I think science and religion address very different types of questions, and they shouldn't overlap."

Dr. Dini, who said he had no intention of changing his policy, declined to address the question of his own faith. But university officials and several students who support him say he is a religious man.

"He's a devout Catholic," said Greg Rogers, 36, a pre-med student from Lubbock. "He's mentioned it in discussion groups."

Mr. Rogers, who returned to college for a second degree and who said his beliefs aligned with Dr. Dini's, added: "I believe in God and evolution. I believe that evolution was the tool that brought us about. To deny the theory of evolution is, to me, like denying the law of gravity. In science, a theory is about as close to a fact as you can get."

Another student, Brent Lawlis, 21, from Midland, Tex., said he hoped to become an orthopedic surgeon and had had no trouble obtaining a letter of recommendation from Dr. Dini. "I'm a Christian, but there's too much biological evidence to throw out evolution," he said.

But other students waiting to enter classes Friday morning said they felt that Dr. Dini had stepped over the line. "Just because someone believes in creationism doesn't mean he shouldn't give them a recommendation," said Lindsay Otoski, 20, a sophomore from Albuquerque who is studying nursing. "It's not fair."

On Jan. 21, Jeremiah Glassman, chief of the Department of Justice's civil rights division, told the university's general counsel, Dale Pat Campbell, that his office was looking into the complaint, and asked for copies of the university's policies on letters of recommendation.

David R. Smith, the Texas Tech chancellor, said on Friday afternoon that the university, a state institution with almost 30,000 students and an operating budget of $845 million, had no such policy and preferred to leave such matters to professors.

In a letter released by his office, Dr. Smith noted that there were 38 other faculty members who could have issued Mr. Spradling a letter of recommendation, had he taken their classes. "I suspect there are a number of them who can and do provide letters of recommendation to students regardless of their ability to articulate a scientific answer to the origin of the human species," Dr. Smith wrote.

Members of the Liberty Legal Institute, who specialize in litigating what they call religious freedom cases, said their complaint was a matter of principle.

"There's no problem with Dr. Dini saying you have to understand evolution and you have to be able to describe it in detail," said Kelly Shackelford, the group's chief counsel, "but you can't tell students that they have to hold the same personal belief that you do."

Mr. Shackelford said that he would await the outcome of the Justice Department investigation but that the next step would probably be to file a suit against the university.

[Catspaw]

you should not be discriminated against by a government- employed instructor who has a different belief about origins.

This student was not discriminated against. He didn't take the class. He didn't ask the professor for a letter of recommendation. He sat in on two classes (which is not the same as taking a course for credit) and looked at a website. Could you show me where the actual--not perceived--discrimation occurred?

[steve-b]

The difference between fact and theory is that a theory has not be undeniable proven or refuted by fact.

No, the difference between fact and theory is that the former is a specific observation (an apple just conked me on the noggin as I sat under this tree) and the latter is a systematic explantion of many observations (objects attract one another with a force proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them).

(Yes, I know that the story about Newton getting hit on the head is probably apocryphal, but it's still a valid illustration of the concept.)

Some theories are so strongly confirmed that they may, for all practical purposes, be taken as truth (while remaining subject to refutation should some contrary facts be discovered). You might fly like Superman if you jump out a window -- but I wouldn't advise the attempt.

[RadioAstronomer]

that the students uphold his religious belief in evolution.

Evolution IS NOT a religious belief at all. It is a scientific theory that resulted from hundreds of years of painstaking research. On the other hand, Creationism/ID is a belief system and does not belong in a science class or should be considered science at all. Creationism/ID is truly a faith-based argument.

[RadioAstronomer]

Frankly, I think he just has a problem with "bible thumpers".

I disagree. In good conscience, I could not recommend a student if he professed the stars were only 6,000 years old for graduate studies in astronomy either.

[usastandsunited]

What's happening here is that the court is being asked to change the professor's personal belief that these students will not make good scientists.....

i would have to agree with you... The only problem I would foresee is; if a student because of his/her belief in creation wouldn't be admitted to a medical school,period. Then maybe the courts would need to decide if this is in a fact a factor that would prevent him/her from becoming a "good" doctor.

[Kryptonite]

The level of misunderstanding of the legal issues in this matter, as demonstrated by the comments on this thread, is profoundly dismaying.

All those who think this professor has a legal right to discriminate based on religious beliefs probably also think he has the right to discriminate based on race. Nobody can honestly believe that this guy could legally issue letters of recommendation only to white people. He couldn't. And he won't get away with this stunt either.

[Catspaw]

Please read the article very carefully. The student in question never took the class or asked the professor for a letter of recommendation. Please show me where the actual discrimination took place.

[Kryptonite]

I read about this story last week, and I did read this newer Slimes article carefully. The investigation isn't about one student - it's about the policy, and if the policy is, on its face, discriminatory, then actual harm isn't even an element of proof.

[PatrickHenry]

The only conceivable case this belligerent, litigious bozo could have would be if the professor had gone out of his way to write a negative letter to torpedo the student's chance of getting into graduate school. All that the professor has done is to remain silent, and to decline to write a letter. The creationoid is an abnoxious fool, trying to use the legal system to force his non-scientific belief system on the world.

[Catspaw]

There are two matters going on at once: the Justice Department investigation and this student's threat of a lawsuit. They're two different things. The first is whether the professor's refusal to write letters of recommendation for believers in creationism for a class on evolution, a practice which is voluntary for professors and for which the university has no policy, is discriminatory. The second is if this student has been discrimated against by sitting in on two classes and looking at a website and will most assuredly be filing a lawsuit against the professor and the university.

[Catspaw]

You know what the net result of this is going to be: nobody at Texas Tech--at least in the biology department, and possibly the entire science department--is going to get a letter of recommendation. If this is pushed, professors are going to refuse to write letters of recommendation en masse because they're afraid of litigation.

[AndrewC]

the student could convince me of that also. (But in that case, I would urge the student to publish and collect his Nobel Prize.)

That is a fairly good example of a closed mind, but you are a scientist.

[Kryptonite]

With all due respect, it's a biology class, not a "class on evolution".

[js1138]

If this is pushed, professors are going to refuse to write letters of recommendation en masse because they're afraid of litigation.

I can't say if this will happen, but in my experience, students always have "soul mate" professors that get asked for recommendations. Some professors are just a_holes and write letters based purely on whether they like a person. The whole business reeks of bias and favortism.Having said this, the recommendation should not ever comment on anything except whether the student mastered the course material and avoided committing any obvious felonies.

[Catspaw]

What's the actual title of the class? I never took a class on "biology," especially not as a junior in college. (I did take biology as a high school freshman.) It'd be either zoology, botany or component.

[steve-b]

All those who think this professor has a legal right to discriminate based on religious beliefs

The professor is not discriminating based on "religious beliefs" -- he is discriminating based on rejection of a basic foundation stone of the biological sciences.

This case reminds me of the Muslim woman in Floriduh who is suing for the "right" to have a driver's license issued with a photo taken in a burqa. The state's refusal to do so is not discrimination based on religion -- it is simply a rational insistence that a photo ID should include a photograph that acutally identifies its subject.

[Catspaw]

Because letters of recommendation are voluntary and indeed, purely arbitrary, the professors can and do write letters of recommendation for whomever they want. I would've have asked a prof with whom I didn't agree (or intensely loathed & vice versa) for a letter of recommendation. I would've gone to a prof who would portray me in the most flattering light.