PINEVILLE, La. (ABP) — In a move that already has generated considerable outcry, Louisiana College trustees will now require college administrators to approve textbooks for classes at the Baptist school.
Previously the selection of textbooks and other classroom materials was at the sole discretion of faculty members. Trustees said the change will bring accountability to the process. Under the new policy, approved by trustees after a lengthy executive session Dec. 3, all materials used at the school now must be approved by department chairs and the vice president of academic affairs.
One trustee said the new policy brings the school in line with the 2000 “Baptist Faith and Message,” the Southern Baptist Convention's new doctrinal statement.
The school's faculty approved a statement Dec. 5 warning the new policy will damage the college's reputation, devalue degree programs and hinder recruitment and fund-raising efforts, according to The Town Talk newspaper of Alexandria.
The new policy is “manifestly impossible,” said Thomas Howell, chair of the history department. “There is no conceivable way to review all the materials. There is no other way but to trust our faculty members to use good professional judgment on these kinds of things.”
Meanwhile, opponents of the new policy are organizing a candlelight vigil near the Pineville campus for Dec. 10.
The issue of textbook approval surfaced in September when university President Rory Lee removed two books from the college bookstore after complaints from a student. The books — “A Road Less Traveled” by Scott Peck and “A Lesson Before Dying” by Ernest Gaines — had been used for several years in a values class. The complaining student noted the Peck book contains profane words and the Gaines novel includes a love scene.
A single complaint should not be enough to get a book pulled, one student told the newspaper. “Only one student had a problem with the book out of all the years they've used it,” Dale de Perrodil said. “'The Road Less Traveled' is an excellent text.”
Lee acknowledged he ordered the removal of the books without following the established procedure, which provides for students to be assigned alternative readings for materials they find objectionable.
The incident prompted a trustee review of the textbook selection process.
Fred Malone, chair of the trustee academic affairs committee, said the old policy provided “literally no academic governance or oversight” in the selection of materials. As established, faculty members do not have to submit textbooks or materials for review by anyone, Malone said.
The changes, which took effect immediately, assign “primary” responsibility to faculty members but require materials to gain additional approval farther up the academic and administrative ladder. Malone said the new policy falls in line with the 2000 “Baptist Faith and Message” because it provides the balance of academic freedom and academic responsibility called for in the doctrinal statement.
The approved policy not only addresses the process for selecting textbooks and materials but also establishes guidelines for those materials. “All teaching materials and assignments must be relevant to the subject matter, appropriate in content and purpose, not inordinately expensive or difficult to obtain and recognized by others in the discipline as appropriate for the subject matter,” the policy states.
Making the new policy effective immediately adds pressure to administrators, since textbook selection is underway for the 2004 spring semester.
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