University governance and academic freedom
R O'Neil, WG Tierney - Competing conceptions of academic …, 2004 - books.google.com
R O'Neil, WG Tierney
Competing conceptions of academic governance: Negotiating the …, 2004•books.google.comWhen Christina Axson-Flynn enrolled in the Actor Training Program at the University of Utah
in the fall of 1998, she could hardly have anticipated the intense conflict between
governance and academic freedom which her curricular choice would soon trigger. A devout
Mormon, Axson-Flynn had warned faculty members during her audition that she would be
uncomfortable “taking the Lord's name in vain” or uttering certain taboo words. On two
occasions during her first semester, she substituted acceptable language for words she …
in the fall of 1998, she could hardly have anticipated the intense conflict between
governance and academic freedom which her curricular choice would soon trigger. A devout
Mormon, Axson-Flynn had warned faculty members during her audition that she would be
uncomfortable “taking the Lord's name in vain” or uttering certain taboo words. On two
occasions during her first semester, she substituted acceptable language for words she …
When Christina Axson-Flynn enrolled in the Actor Training Program at the University of Utah in the fall of 1998, she could hardly have anticipated the intense conflict between governance and academic freedom which her curricular choice would soon trigger. A devout Mormon, Axson-Flynn had warned faculty members during her audition that she would be uncomfortable “taking the Lord’s name in vain” or uttering certain taboo words. On two occasions during her first semester, she substituted acceptable language for words she found offensive in the assigned scripts—once with her instructor’s knowledge and reluctant approval, and the other time on her own initiative. During a discussion of plans for the ensuing semester, the gap between Axson-Flynn’s standards and her instructors’ expectations became starkly clear. When the faculty warned that future scripts must be read verbatim, Axson-Flynn withdrew from the program. She soon filed a lawsuit in federal district court, charging that the conditions that the drama faculty had imposed upon her effectively abridged her federally protected constitutional rights. Specifically, she claimed that the Utah drama professors with whom she had tangled during the fall semester had abridged her religious liberty and her freedom of speech by insisting that, as a condition of completing the Actor Training Program, she must utter words that she deemed abhorrent by reason of her faith and beliefs. The district judge dismissed her suit, upholding the curricular mandates imposed by the theater faculty. 1
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