PROFS SAY BYU SHORT ON ACADEMIC FREEDOM By Kristen Moulton
(AP writer)

The climate for academic freedom at Brigham Young University is "distressingly poor" and infringements widespread, the American Association of University Professors said in a report issued today.

A 19-page report by an AAUP committee that probed the firing of a professor and academic freedom issues at the Mormon Church owned university was published in the September-October issue of the AAUP journal Academe.

The 45,000 members of AAUP, national faculty group committed to academic freedom on campuses, are to vote next June on whether to censure BYU's administration.

Such a censure would not threaten BYU's accreditation but would be a blow to its prestige in the academic community.

The report concluded that the large number of cases charging violations of academic freedom suggest "a widespread pattern of infringements on academic freedom in a climate of oppression and fear of reprisals."

Administration efforts to protect orthodoxy at BYU-particularly when it comes to feminist and Mormon studies-hinder professors from staying current in their disciplines, the report said.

The university violated former English Professor Gail Turley Houston's academic freedom when it refused to give her continuing status, BYU's version of tenure, the AAUP said. The administration had accused Houston of attacking BYU in speeches at a nonchurch sponsered forum on Mormon studies, and in Student Review, a non-campus newspaper.

Alan Wilkins, academic vice president, wrote in a letter to faculty and staff Friday that the university did not violate Houston's academic freedom but that she had violated the university's policy by "publicly contradicting...church doctrine and deliberately attacking the church."

In BYU's response to the AAUP report, also published in Academe, the university said AAUP is not living up to its own statement that religious universities can place limitations on academic freedom to preserve their religious missions.

Wilkins said BYU rejects "AAUP's goal to impose a secular model on religious universities."

In their rebuttal to the 17-page AAUP report, school officials cited the following excerpt from a 1994 speech Houston made at the Sunstone Symposium, an independent annual gathering in Salt Lake City that invites analysis of the Mormon Church.

"The LDS Church seeks to silence its members who are having visions of Mother in Heaven. In effect, women are being told by their Mormon pastors to deny their own visions of God. . . . I did not know my Mother-in-Heaven until a just a few years ago -- and I ask why would my church want me to forget her or deny her -- I cannot and will not do that."

BYU officials said those words leave little question Houston violated school policy.

"Professor Houston was saying that the church is wrong on the issue of praying to Heavenly Mother," BYU officials state in their rebuttal. "To assert that this was not advocacy is simply implausible."

The AAUP report also castigates BYU for several other cases in recent years, including the firing of Professor Steven Epperson, who fell out of favor with his bishop for failing to attend church on Sundays. Epperson said he spent that time with his family feeding homeless people in Salt Lake City.

Several other cases of academic freedom violations are mentioned in the AAUP report, though investigators said they heard so many complaints during their interviews with more than 100 individuals that not every one was outlined.

"I was surprised by the number of cases that came to our attention," said AAUP investigator Linda Pratt, a professor at the University of Nebraska. "Usually, when AAUP comes to a campus, we know about one or possibly two very troubling cases, but with BYU, there was just a flood of them."

 The following document was prepared by a committee of the BYU Chapter of the AAUP during the winter of 1996. This document poses some of the problems with academic freedom for women at BYU.

March 1996

Limitations on the Academic Freedom of Women at Brigham Young University

Because Brigham Young University isowned and operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Church's leaders have largely determined the attitudes and practices of the university. Those leaders, as well as the university's administration, are all empowered men in the Mormon culture who defines right and good by male standards. The experience of women often calls those male-centered standards into question as incomplete or otherwise inadequate.

As a result, Brigham Young University has a history of suppressing scholarship and artistic expressions representing the experience of women. The following list provides examples of some of the ways in which university officials have acted over the past several years to silence women faculty and staff and suppress their scholarship. University officials imply that their actions with regard to women are taken to ensure that the university uphold the doctrines and standards of the LDS Church. But the women they have silenced or punished are also committed, faithful members of that Church (though the leaders seem to see these women as less important than themselves).

It finally comes down to a question of the right of representation: do Mormon women scholars have the right to represent their own experience in their own voice, or must representations of women and women's experience conform to a male-formulated construct of that experience? This would seem to be an issue of academic freedom that the Accreditation Committee might consider significant in its evaluation of Brigham Young University.

**In 1992 the administration refused to hire candidate Barbara Bishop for a faculty appointment in the English Department, although she was the choice of the section, chair, and college dean for the position and had the full support of her local ecclesiastical leaders. At the time she even headed the Primary (the children's organization of the LDS Church) in her ward (congregation). The reason the administration gave for not approving her hire was that 17 faculty members in the English Department (of a faculty of 75) did not vote in favor of hiring her. Bishop's scholarship dealt with the works of African American writer Zora Neal Hurston and other American women writers.

**In 1992, the LDS Church celebrated the sesquicentennial of the Relief Society, the Church's organization for adult women. In conjunction with that celebration, Professor Marie Cornwall, then the head of the BYU Women's Research Institute, organized a scholarly conference on the Relief Society. Because speakers at that conference criticized as well as praised the Relief Society, Professor Cornwall was called in and censured by University Provost Bruce Hafen for planning this conference and carrying it out.

**In 1992, the organizing committee of the BYU Women's Conference chose as the keynote speaker for the 1993 conference Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, faithful Mormon woman, recent Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, and winner of a MacArthur Grant. Ulrich's book has been so significant because she uses the twenty-year diary of Martha Ballard to reconstruct late 18th-century New England history to include the experiences of women. This study has made scholars of political, economic, social, and medical history of the period revise their conclusions and include women's contributions in their historical research. Brigham Young University's board of trustees did not approve Ulrich to be a speaker for the women's conference. Although both she and her ecclesiastical leaders tried to find out why she was not approved, she was never given a reason.

**In 1993, the board of trustees fired the chair of the BYU women's conference, Carol Lee Hawkins, from her position, even though during the six years she directed the conference, attendance almost doubled and the conference received an approval rating from participants who completed the exit questionnaire of over 90 percent. To explain the firing, the Board suggested only that a change of assignment was a good thing from time to time, as if this position were a Church assignment rather than a paid university administrative position and Hawkins's employment. Just after Carol Lee Hawkins was fired, a group of women's studies faculty from across the university met with University Provost Bruce Hafen and asked him about that action. He answered that Hawkins had not been fired, that she had indicated that she wanted a change in assignment, and that she was just moving to another position in the university. Hafen did nothing to help Hawkins secure another position.

**In the summer of 1993 Provost Bruce Hafen tried to keep faithful Mormon woman and historian Claudia Bushman from speaking in a week-long faculty seminar sponsored by the Dean of Honors and General Education, although her husband Professor Richard Bushman was approved to speak. When Hafen learned that the Bushmans had both already been invited to participate, he required that Honors Dean Harold Miller only advertise Richard Bushman.

**In 1993 the university terminated Professor Cecilia Konchar Farr after her third-year review. Konchar Farr is a feminist activist who worked to educate people about violence against women, who helped establish the feminist activist student club Voice on campus, and who took a public pro-Choice position, although she also said in her speech that she did not favor abortion and fully supported the LDS First Presidency's position on abortion. She also had the full support of her local ecclesiastical leaders as a faithful Mormon, worthy to participate in all Church ordinances. At first the university tried to represent Konchar Farr as an inadequate scholar and teacher, but after the appeal hearing, an agreement was reached by which both sides were to say only that there were "irreconcilable differences" between the administration and Konchar Farr. Again, a woman professor's career was damaged, and the university gave no satisfactory reason for that action. (The accreditation committee might benefit from examining some of the files from the appeal of that decision; these files are in the possession of Professor William A. Wilson, Konchar Farr's advocate in the review proceedings and the chair of the English Department when she was hired.)

**In 1994 candidate Marian Bishop Mumford was selected by the English Department, with the full approval of the department chair and the dean of the College of Humanities, for hire to the faculty of the BYU English Department. Her Ph.D. dissertation was an examination of women's journals, including the journal of Anne Frank, to demonstrate that women construct themselves most authentically in their journals, because they consider themselves to be the sole audience. A part of that study was to examine the ways in which Anne Frank wrote about her body as a way to give herself identity at least in language, in a culture that literally erased her from existence. Acting under the instructions of Provost Bruce Hafen, Chair Neal Lambert told Bishop Mumford that she would be hired only if she agreed to discontinue her current scholarship. The candidate declined to come to Brigham Young University under those circumstances.

**In 1994 and 1995 Joni Clarke was selected from a large pool of applicants as one of the two best candidates for an American literature faculty position in the English Department. She had the full support of her local ecclesiastical leaders and also university academic vice president Alan Wilkins, who called her and interviewed her for over an hour to determine her worthiness to teach at BYU. Her research deals with Native American texts, particularly those by women. Provost Bruce Hafen did not approve her to be considered for hire.

**In 1995 Dorice Elliot was also selected from a large pool of applicants as one of the two best candidates for a British literature faculty position in the English Department. Her research deals with 19th century British literature by women. She is greatly admired by her ecclesiastical leaders because of her work as the Relief Society president in her congregation. Provost Bruce Hafen did not approve her to be considered for hire. In both of the above-mentioned cases, the faithfulness of these women to the Mormon Church was not in question. Why, then, were they excluded from candidacy for hire at Brigham Young University? The administration does not give reasons for its actions, but we may perhaps look at this as part of the pattern of exclusion or silencing of those who want to study women's experience from women's perspective.

**In 1995 Professors Karen E. Gerdes and Martha N. Beck were forbidden from publishing the results of their study of the experiences of Mormon women survivors of childhood sexual abuse who asked for help from their Mormon ecclesiastical leaders. In the majority of cases, the advice these victims received was damaging rather than helpful. Both professors have since left the university; the study appeared in the Spring 1996 issue of Affilia, Journal of Women and Social Work (Vol. 11, No. 1).

**In April 1996 Katherine Kennedy was chosen for an English Department faculty appointment in Romanticism, the unanimous choice of the later British literature section and with almost unanimous support from the department. Kennedy was supported for hire by the dean and even the general authority who interviewed her, as well as by her local ecclesiastical leaders. But the administration rejected her. Kennedy's research examines images of motherhood, including breastfeeding, in British Romantic poetry by women. Regarding the decision not to hire Kennedy, University Academic Vice President Alan Wilkins explained to the Department Advisory Council that the English Department could assume there was something about Kennedy's feminism that the administration did not approve of.

**There is only one university lecture named after a woman, the Alice Louise Reynolds lecture. Money was raised to endow this lecture by Helen Stark, a strong feminist and well-known member of the Mormon community. She herself contributed approximately $15,000 to the endowment fund. Stark died two years ago at the age of 89. In 1995 the committee selected Elouise Bell, a prominent woman full professor to deliver that lecture. The administration not only rejected the woman as the speaker; it informed the committee that Roger R. Keller, a male associate professor from the Department of Religion, would be the speaker. In 1996 the Alice Louise Reynolds lecture was not held.

**For several years women candidates for faculty employment at Brigham Young University have been asked this question by the academic vice president: "If a general authority [general leader of the Mormon Church] asked you not to publish your research, what would you do?" It has been suggested to the candidates that they must agree not to publish in such a case. This condition of employment undermines the position of new women faculty members at Brigham Young University. To be hired, they apparently must agree to let male ecclesiastical leaders who are not trained in their disciplines have final authority over the publication of their scholarship. They are offered no review process to determine the fairness or accuracy of the authority's request. Again, women are instructed that they must suppress their own perspectives on their own experience or research if a male authority so directs them.

**In its entire seventy-five year history, a woman faculty member has never been chosen to present BYU's distinguished faculty lecture.

The BYU AAUP Chapter will provide documentation of all of the above claims upon request. We will obtain statements from or provide the Accreditation Committee with the addresses and telephone numbers of the individuals named in this document

Letter of Resignation from BYU; Brian Evenson

8/13/1996

Brian Evenson
Department of English, 205 Morrill
Oklahoma State University
Stillwater, OK 74078

Open letter addressed to Jay Fox, Chair
Department of English, 3146 JKHB
Brigham Young University
Provo, UT 84602

Dear Jay,

Though I respect many of the faculty and students at Brigham Young, I do not feel that BYU fosters the academic freedom and exploration which are necessary to a university environment. Indeed, I feel that many of BYU's administrators, as well certain members of the faculty and some of the students, are taking action and imposing restrictions which severely stifle academic freedom. BYU provides a climate in which academic inquiry is not allowed unless it is restricted within unacceptably narrow parameters. All indications suggest that these parameters will continue to narrow.

I have very specific objections to Brigham Young University's current policies. For instance:

--Though I do not object to temple worthiness, I object to the way in which temple worthiness is now being enforced. I feel the policy will lead on the one hand to hypocrisy and on the other to the lessening of the enjoyment many BYU faculty members will receive from attending the temple and from paying their tithing.

--I feel that BYU creates a hostile work environment for women: women who are scholars and women involved in cultural studies and gender studies in particular. I feel that BYU's harassment of the women's organization Voice-- as well as President Bateman's and the administration's attack of the nationwide clothesline project --show a lack of understanding of and sympathy toward abuse. I am not willing to participate, even passively, in the maintenance of such an environment.

--I feel that President Bateman's unwillingness to acknowledge the AAUP Academic Freedom Association is reflective of BYU's larger unwillingness to allow academic freedom in certain areas.

--I believe the continuing status review process as it currently stands is dishonest and manipulative. I feel this in particular in Gail Houston's case, in which documents were introduced after the departmental and college level reviews without Gail having a chance to respond to them. I feel that faulty conclusions were drawn --as far as I can tell purposefully. Data that showed Gail to be a dedicated teacher and scholar, as well as a strong spiritual support to students, was interpreted counterproductively. I feel that if I returned to Brigham Young I could not depend on a fair and honest continuing status review.

--I do not feel that I can depend upon your support as a chair. I feel that this is made clear by the way in which you handled Gail's case.

--I have been shocked at the willingness of both President Lee and President Bateman to make uninformed statements in both public and private about the inappropriate nature of my book, particularly when Lee claimed that BYU's process would leave judgement of the book to people trained in literature. Despite all claims made for a fair review process, the administration has already made up its mind. In the case of both presidents, their comments demonstrate that if they have read my book at all, they have read it in only a cursory fashion.

--I feel that Brigham Young University has been dishonest in regard to the anonymous letter that was sent to a general authority criticizing my work. First I was asked to respond to the letter and then, several months after I did so, it was claimed that the anonymous letter was of no importance. Later, BYU disingenuously gave the press the impression that they had arranged for me to meet with the anonymous student and that I even had already done so. In fact, no meeting was ever arranged or planned, despite several requests on my part.

--I am also somewhat disappointed that though the English Department has strong proof that a particular professor has written letters to the General Authorities about myself and others, and has had repeated violations of standards, nothing has been done about him. I think it a profound weakness of the department and of BYU in general that, though you scold such people and warn them, you seem unwilling to fire them. Yet you show no such compunction about releasing scholars such as Gail Houston for reasons which are flimsy and insufficiently substantiated at best.

All this is further complicated by the fact that a General Authority is now the President of the University. Many Mormons teaching at BYU believe it wrong to question the decisions of a General Authority, and many will be unwilling to tell him when he is making poor decisions. I think that in his actions and decisions Merrill Bateman has demonstrated both a willingness to further compromise academic freedom and a lack of understanding of academics and what it takes to run a university effectively. His comments and speeches have made me feel that he is either uninformed or wrongly informed on current trends in academia. I feel that under his leadership BYU can only get worse.

I would not be proud to remain at Brigham Young University. I am not proud of the negative reputation that the BYU English Department is gaining in the profession at large. I am not pleased with the way BYU treats its faculty. I feel that its current policies and attitudes do great damage not only to faculty but to students. For this reason, I am tendering my resignation as an assistant professor of Brigham Young University, effective immediately.

Sincerely,

Brian Evenson