As you may have read in our story, the Missouri House recently passed House Bill 213, the Emily Brooker Intellectual Diversity Act. "Intellectual diversity," as defined by the Act, is "the foundation of a learning environment that exposes students to a variety of political, ideological, religious, and other perspectives, when such perspectives relate to the subject matter being taught or issues being discussed."

At first glance, this seems like a great idea. Diversity is good, right? People have been fighting for diversity in America for hundreds of years: racial diversity, religious diversity, sexual diversity. Laws supporting diversity appear to be cause for celebration. However, the language of the Act is instead cause for suspicion. Let’s take a look at some of it.

Establish clear campus policies that ensure that hecklers or threats of violence do not prevent speakers from speaking

The bill does not include a definition of "heckling." If a student asks a question that a speaker at a college doesn’t want to field, it would be all too easy to label it "heckling" and have the student hauled off to a grievance committee. Such disciplinary actions appear on transcripts and will follow students around for the rest of their academic careers.

Include intellectual diversity concerns in the institution’s guidelines on teaching and program development and such concerns shall include but not be limited to the protection of religious freedom including the viewpoint that the Bible is inerrant

Amusing as it is to picture two college students arguing about which edition of the Bible is the inerrant one, this passage is worrisome. The vagueness of the term "concerns" allows for complaints about nearly anything professors teach.

Develop hiring, tenure, and promotion policies that protect individuals against viewpoint discrimination and track any report grievances in that regard

Picture two college students arguing about which edition of the Bible is inerrant

Almost as disturbing is the idea that a teacher applying for a biology position cannot be denied for rejecting the theory of evolution, a basic scientific concept. A geology teacher who believes that the world was created six thousand years ago might be hired. Logically sound academic reasons for failing to consider certain people for certain positions would no longer apply.

Develop methods for disseminating best practices to ensure that conflicts between personal beliefs and classroom assignments that may contradict such beliefs can be resolved in a manner that achieves educational objectives without requiring a student to act against his or her conscience

According to this, a student in a history class may beg off writing a term paper on World War II based on the belief that the Holocaust never happened (a belief that, while it may seem preposterous, some people hold today). A student can make up a belief just to get out of doing an assignment.

If the Christian religion is respected, as in the case of Emily Brooker, then other religions must be respected as well. Pastafarianism, a religion created in protest of the Kansas Board of Education’s decision regarding intelligent design, promotes the belief that the universe was created by an entity called the Flying Spaghetti Monster; will this belief also be respected in the college classroom?

There’s a line between teaching a class and discriminating against a religion. Most people don’t find this line to be terribly fine, but for those who have issues, universities have mechanisms in place for determining where on the spectrum a situation falls. There are procedures for grievances. Brooker’s grievance may not have been handled well, but that is not a reason to pass legislation that will lead to immensely complicated legal issues and problems with academic freedom that could easily have been handled by a college ethics committee.

Instead of guaranteeing protection of intellectual diversity to students, this bill will remove the rights and abilities of teachers to effectively conduct their classes. Instead of supporting the academic freedom of teachers, it will instill fear of retribution for nothing but doing their jobs.

Tell us what you think. Write Spectrum at editor@mcckc.edu.

Copyright 2007 Metropolitan Community College