The UT-AAUP is republishing the article Questioning double standards which was published by the Independent Collegian on Thursday, March 1, 2012. We post it here for your information and without comment. To read the UT-AAUP newsletter Administrative Hypocrisy by LindaMarie Rouillard, UT-AAUP Executive Board regarding the same topic visit this link.
--Mary Jane Erard, UT-AAUP Executive Director
Questioning double standards
The Independent Collegian
Published: Thursday, March 1, 2012
Can being devout in fundamentalist religious beliefs hinder one's ability to perform his or her job in a secular institution? What if that belief is to actively denounce homosexuals and refuse to acknowledge the validity of their relationships? What if this belief is held by university administrators and Human Resources employees?
Here at UT the situation may be just as questioned. In 2010, the administration, through the Vice President of Facilities and Construction, paid for eight employees including several UT administrators to attend the Global Leadership Summit. The summit is held by the Willow Creek Association, a ministry based in Barrington, Ill. The interdenominational network of churches denounces same-sex relationships.
The Global Leadership Summit is centered around the idea "that the maximum influence and impact of the Church is felt when all of its Christ-centered leaders are at the forefront of establishing and growing well-led local churches, companies, schools, governments and social enterprises."
In 2011 the Jacobs Administration sent another eight administrators, including Human Resource administrators, to the Global Leadership Summit.
While on one hand the Jacobs Administration pays for UT employees to participate in the summit that denounces same-sex relationships, on the other hand Jacobs fired the associate vice president of Human Resources when she publicly stated her adherence to fundamentalist beliefs.
If an administrator is fired for expressing their beliefs, yet 16 are sent to summits to strengthen similar ideals, if not the very same beliefs, where does that leave the administration? Something analogous to a rather uncomfortable yoga pose as well as a state of hypocrisy.
Should UT, a state-funded public institution, pay for these leaders to attend this summit, where beliefs are fostered which are mutually incompatible to "providing a safe, welcoming environment for all students, faculty, staff, patients and visitors regardless of race, creed, age, gender, sexual orientation or physical ability"?
UT offers various religious studies programs and formed the university's Center for Religious Understanding last year. These are appropriate means of education, study and dialogue between varying religions and how they relate to a post-modern reality. This is suitable for a state-funded public institution. Funds should be allotted to this particular method, rather than taxpayer money be used educating administrators to adhere to a belief that delegitimizes the love and pain of other human beings.
Link to article.
