The story goes something like this: Dr. Fred Downing's Philosophy 300 values studies class required the reading of The Road Less Traveled by Scott Peck and A Lesson Before Dying by Earnest Gaines. The content of those particular works apparantly offended a student, who, while having an out of class discussion with Dr. Downing, never filed a formal complaint. The student also declined the opportunity for alternatives to the apparantly offensive texts. Then, though a formal complaint had never been filed, a pastor called Dr. Rory Lee --the president of the college-- to discuss the non-issue. At this point Dr. Lee told Dr. Ben Hawkins, the vice president of academic affairs, to look into the issue.

I don't have a problem with that. What I have a problem with is the fact that this semester the student in question, who was no longer in the class, brought it back up again. Lee told The Wildcat, "That was when I took action." And by taking action, he meant removing the two texts in question from the bookstore. They weren't on the shelves for this semester, but they were in storage for a class that would be offered next semester.

What could so offensive that books have to be removed from the bookstore due to the complaints of one student? Apparantly an instance of mild cursing in The Road Less Traveled was the catalyst for all off this. There are some sexual undertones in A Lesson Before Dying that also made the whiner in question queasy.

I realize that this is a private college that isn't subject to federal mandates about academic freedom, but I still like to think that I'm getting a rounded education. I'm in college now, and I should be able to handle offensive words. I've read some things since coming here that have made me uncomfortable, but that's part of the learning experience. Just because this is a Christian institution doesn't mean that we should shelter ourselves from the secular world.

I don't know that I would mind as much if the official chain of complaint had been followed before the removal of the texts in question (which they would not have been removed if the appropriate channels had been taken). I would still question the removal (and would have probably found another angle to rant over), but I don't know that I'd be as upset; Lee even told The Wildcat, "The bottom line is I violated the policy. I went against procedure [because] I'm not in the chain of decision making [in such a situation]."

The Wildcat also reported Lee as saying that he has "asked the coordinator of the values program to set a meeting with those who teach the values study course to discuss these matters with [him]." This school is trending dangerously away from intellectualism (which they claim to pride themselves in) and into blind fundamentalism. Just look at the recent decision by the Board of Trustees to require all potential professors to sign an agreement saying that they would not teach anything that disagreed with the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message. This is potential professors, now, not current. It's an obvious attempt to weed out liberals and even moderates who might be better qualified, but because they might teach on a particular volitile issue, such as evolution, which they might not even believe themselves, they're automatically disregarded.