Grad Student Alleges School Is Penalizing Him for His Conservative Views
by Jim Brown
June 1, 2005
(AgapePress) - A social work student at Rhode Island College (RIC) says his refusal to back a liberal political agenda may prevent him from earning his master's degree.Bill Felkner alleged last fall that the RIC School of Social Work threatened to reduce his grades if he did not lobby the State Legislature for liberal social causes he did not support. And more recently, the graduate student says he was told that his program's mandatory internship must involve promoting "progressive" policies.
But Felkner says when he refused to meet the policy internship requirements and instead accepted an internship with the Republican governor of Rhode Island, he was told by department chair Lenore Olsen that he could no longer pursue a master's in social work policy (MSW degree) at RIC.
David French is president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), which has been advocating on Felkner's behalf. In an interview with American Family Radio News, French described the master's student as "precariously still enrolled" but said RIC officials can change that and need to "let him intern and advocate for policies and positions he agrees with, and drop any campaign of retaliation against him for bringing these unconstitutional practices to light."
According to the FIRE spokesman, the alleged incident involving Felkner would not be RIC's first abuse of academic freedom. "This college has a speech code," French notes, "and last fall this college tried a professor -- made a professor go through an investigation and hearing because she refused to censor constitutionally protected speech."
In other words, French adds, rather than rewarding the professor for doing the right thing and upholding the Constitution, officials at RIC "actually put her through the ordeal of an investigation for refusing to censor her students. It's a really astonishing place."
Rhode Island College president John Nazarian would not agree to an interview with AFR News. However RIC spokeswoman Jane Fusco claims Felkner has never been required to lobby for liberal social causes, and was never told that he could not continue in the MSW program.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
