Schools answer content request 



Regents questioned homosexual content in universtiy courses 




 By Brandon Copple 

bcopple@kansan.com 

Kansan staff writer 

The University of Kansas and one other Board of Regents school reported 
courses related to homosexuality or bisexuality in response to an 
anonymous research request from the Kansas Legislature, according to a 
Regents´ report. 

The report, forwarded to the Legislature by Regents staff on Friday, 
names two University of Kansas courses with content directly related to 
homosexuality or bisexuality. Wichita State University reported five 
courses. 

Barb Conant, Regents press secretary, said that as far as the Regents 
were concerned, the universities had complied with the request. 

³Judging from the responses and the fact that they had to turn this 
around pretty fast, I´d say they looked as closely as they could,² she 
said. 

The Regents office forwarded the request to the universities from the 
Legislative Research Department in the Kansas statehouse. Legislative 
research refused to identify the legislator who made the request, citing 
exemptions for legislative research in the Kansas Open Records Act. 

Fort Hays State University, refused to provide any course names. 

³We didn´t feel this was an appropriate request to be making of an 
institution of higher education,² said Fort Hays State Provost Rodolfo 
Arevalo. ³A lot of the content in any number of our courses may be 
controversial to somebody, but it also may be important to the students 
for whom we provide those courses.² 

Arevalo said that no law obligated the universities to respond, although 
state agencies generally felt compelled to respond to the inquiries of 
legislators, who control the state´s checkbook. 

Last week, KU Provost David Shulenburger said he believed the 
University, as a public institution, was obligated to comply. 
Shulenburger got the two course names by performing a key-word search of 
course titles and course descriptions in course catalogs and schedules. 

Kansas State University also ran a key-word search of course titles and 
descriptions, but it found no courses directly pertaining to sexual 
orientation. 

Sue Peterson, K-State assistant to the president, said the K-State faced 
a similar situation last summer regarding its policy prohibiting 
discrimination for sexual preference. She said the legislature took 
issue with the policy because it went beyond the requirements of federal 
law. 

³We told her we made a conscious decision not to discriminate on the 
basis of sexual orientation, and we´re not going to change that,² 
Peterson said. ³And that was the end of it.² 

The University of Kansas has a similar policy, but no other Regents 
schools include gays in their anti-discrimination policies. 

Emporia State University reported no courses totally devoted to this 
topic. 

Pittsburg State University said it offered no courses with titles that 
suggest the topic of homosexuality or bisexuality. 

In the event of a legislative attack on course content, Conant said the 
Regents would come to the universities´ defense. 

³Part of the Regents´ mission is to advocate for the universities and 
for the faculty and staff that work there,² she said. ³If we believed 
this information was going to be misused, we would definitely argue for 
academic freedom.²