That is the headline at Inside Higher Ed. What do you all make of this story? (Be sure to read it all.) Calvin has a denominational requirement, the faculty member wanted to be part of a black Baptist church and they said no. Her tenure is being revoked.
When a professor asked for an exemption to a Calvin College
policy so she could join a black church — while remaining a
tenure-track faculty member — the board said no.
http://insidehighered.com/news/2008/01/04/calvin
What do you think? Is this a reasonable requirement for Calvin? Should they have made an exception for Isom? Should they not have the requirement at all?
2 thoughts on ““When Identity Trumps Diversity””
I am grateful to teach at an institution that maintains a Christian identity with a greater degree of variation in Christian practice than Calvin College permits. The comment thread at IHE is very interesting.
I did an MA at Wheaton and as retentive as some faculty can be (and truth be told, I found some of the undergrads more narrow than the faculty) there was a great amount of diversity, within Christian traditions, at Wheaton. Bob Webber, was a prominent example of an Episcopalian and Hassell Bullock is still a minister in PCUSA (neither denomination known as a conservative evangelical strong hold).
It seems to me that Calvin really needs to think more creedily and less denominationally if they want to survive and meet their own stated goals of diversity.