THE KANSAS STATE COLLEGIAN
Tuesday, 24 February 1997
http://collegian.ksu.edu/
===========================


Course content subject of request from Legislature

by John Henderson
Kansas State Collegian



K-State officials got a request last week originating from the Kansas
Legislature for a list of all academic courses with subject matter
directly
related to homosexuality or bisexuality.

James Coffman, provost, said the request, sent through the Kansas Board
of Regents to all regents schools, was open-ended in terms of exactly
what the list was supposed to include or how far the university was
supposed to investigate the content of coursework, if at all.

Coffman said the most anyone from K-State will provide is a list of
course titles that refer to homosexuals or bisexuals, but he didn't
think
there were any such courses.

"I'd consider it very inappropriate to delve into course content," he
said.

On Friday, the College of Arts and Sciences passed the request on to
department heads, asking for a list of all courses offered this academic
year that contain material directly related to the subject of
homosexuality
or bisexuality by Wednesday.

Some professors and department heads, including James Hamilton, head
of the Department of Philosophy, were a little worried.

In an e-mail sent to a long list of professors and university officials,
Hamilton said he was disappointed that the provost's office did not send
a
stronger message against what he considered an "obvious infringement
on academic freedom."

"It is astonishing and regrettable that this request ever made it down
to
the level of department heads and chairs," he wrote in the e-mail. "It
was
the job of those who are hired to represent us to the outside community
to rebuff such a request even before it made it to our dean."

The request, made through Legislative Research Services, could have
been made by as few state legislators as one, but there is no way to
tell,
Coffman said. The service, which routinely sends requests to state
agencies including regents schools, ensures that the person making the
request remains anonymous.

"We have no idea why the request was made," he said.
Coffman said he talked to officials at the University of Kansas, who
told
him they would be taking the same approach.

Paul Donovan, president of the Bisexual and Gay and Lesbian Society,
said a number of BGLS members and other concerned students and
faculty had traded anxious e-mails during the weekend, mostly about the
fact that the request was anonymous and that the administration was
required to respond.

"It kind of raised red flags all over the place," he said.
George Keiser, professor of English and chapter president of American
Association of University Professors, said the request was misguided,
and
a potential threat to academic freedom.

In an age when gender issues are so prevalent, he said, universities
shouldn't have to answer to political will when preparing what they want
to teach - especially when so much about homosexuals and bisexuals is
worth teaching.

He said an Honors Composition II class he recently taught included
analysis of "The Iliad," an epic that in part described the ancient
Greek
ideal of male-male love among soldiers at war, believed to enhance
morale in the ranks.

Coffman said professors still worried about the request should be
reassured, and he would be writing a letter to the regents describing
K-State's position.

He said a list of class titles involving homosexuality or bisexuality
would
be made available, except for those courses proposed in the past two
years, because they aren't through the computer system yet.


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This item was published on February 24, 1998
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Copyright 1998, Student Publications Inc. All rights reserved.
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