IWOG ACADEMICS

    ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY, for refusing tenure to the head of its Graduate Acting Program, Jared Sakren.
    Before coming to ASU, Sakren graduated from Julliard and taught drama both there and at Yale. His students included Annette Bening, Kevin Spacey, Val Kilmer, Kelly McGillis, and Fran McDormand. In 1994 ASU recruited him from a Shakespeare festival in Alabama and hired him to create a graduate level acting curriculum. Three years later, however, they denied him tenure based on the fact that he was teaching too many classics (including Shakespeare, Aeschylus, Chekov, and Ibsen) and not enough modern works more "sensitive" to modern sensibilities. A memo from the head of the drama department criticized his "selection of works from a sexist European canon that is approached traditionally"; other members in the department affirmed the plays were sexist and Eurocentric and demanded that he change the endings or rework the entire plays.
    Sakren refused. His production of Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew" drew special ire as being too sexist, as did his refusal to produce more politically correct works such as the faculty-written "Betty the Yeti: An Eco-Fable," which one reviewer described as "the timeless tale of an abominable snow-woman who seduces a logger and converts him to environmentalism."
    In response to the PC charge, ASU's Department of Theater chair, Bonnie Eckard, replied that "Shakespeare and the classics are alive and well at ASU," and that the administration was in "shock that a faculty member would suggest he was terminated for 'teaching Shakespeare,' or interpreting Shakespeare in certain ways." However, during the court case itself, Sakren's defense team pointed out that Sakren's contract with ASU included a clause providing complete academic freedom--to which ASU's legal team countered that the clause was completely unenforceable.
    All the while, actress and former Sakren student Annette Bening came to her former teacher's defense. "ASU made a gross error," she told CAMPUS: America's Student Newspaper. "This talented, energetic, caring teacher has fallen victim to an atmosphere of political correctness and this is wrong."
    Sakren's lawsuit against ASU nearly wrecked him financially; the case was finally settled out of court.

    The NEW YORK CITY PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM, for allowing Muslims to pray on school grounds during Ramadan 2001 after spending years consistently fighting Christian students who asked for the same privilige.
    Over New York's WABC radio, Schools Chancellor Harold Levy admitted that Muslim students are getting their own prayer rooms in the schools, while Christian prayer in said schools is still called unconstitutional. WABC has been airing these reports for weeks.
    Chancellor Levy added in a statement that prayer "cannot interfere with classes or infringe on other students." However, Levy's spokesperson, Marge Feinberg, has said that Muslim students will be allowed to skip classes for prayer if they reschedule them for a later date.

    Teachers at the SIDWELL FRIENDS SCHOOL, an affluent private Quaker school on Wisconsin Avenue in Washington D.C. On its website they quote a former headmaster who said, "And as good teachers grapple with improving the intellectual abilities of their pupils, they also work to provide a climate of sensitivity to the human condition, to ensure that our most personal gift, the gift of our minds, is used in a generous spirit for worthy goals." Yet in 1993 its eighth-grade teachers caused a ruckus in the nation's capitol for assigning their students to write an essay on "Why I Feel Guilty Being White." (This was later denied by Sidwell, though investigations by D.C. reporters and CBS News concluded that it was in fact true.)

    TEMPLE UNIVERSITY, for apparently thinking that anyone who wanted to protest a play about a homosexual Jesus by putting on a Christian play must be insane.
    After hearing in the fall of 1999 about the production of the controversial Broadway play "Corpus Christi", in which Jesus is called the "King of the Queers", Temple junior, honor student and former White House intern Michael A. Marcavage reacted by complaining to the Dean of the School of Communications and Theater, and posting fliers around campus about the nature of "Corpus Christi". Vice President of Campus Safety William Bergman was concerned about protests, so Marcavage promised there would be none.
    Marcavage then decided to stage a Christian play himself. Temple gave him permission to do so...then cancelled the play a week before the curtain rose, offering lack of money as the reason. Marcavage offered to pay for the play out of his own pocket, but was still refused.
    The refusal came during a meeting with Bergman and Director of Campus Safety Carl Bittenbender. Upset, Marcavage excused himself, locked himself in the bathrrom, and began praying. Subsequently Bergman came pounding on the door. Marcavage opened it, saying he thought the conversation was over, and then (by his account) Bergman physically forced him back into the office and "pushed me into a chair and held me with his arm." Bergman allegedly refused to let Marcavage leave, tripped him when the student rose, then manhandled him to the couch with Bittenbender's help and held him down there.
    Marcavage was handcuffed and taken to the university emergency crisis center, where Bittenbender signed a statement claiming that the student was "severely mentally disabled," represented a "clear and present danger to others," had "inflicted or attempted to inflict serious bodily harm on another" within the past 30 days, and that Marcavage "has attempted suicide" and there was a "reasonable probability of suicide unless treatment was afforded" by the center. Bittenbender concluded that the student was "in need of involuntary examination and treatment."
    According to examining physician Dr. Jose Villaluz, Marcavage was "not in need of involuntary treatment" and ordered the student's release. The release came just three hours after admission. In response to Bittenbender's charges, Temple staff psychologist Dr. Denise Walton asserted that before his admission to the crisis center, Marcavage showed no overt signs of being ready to harm himself or others.
    Marcavage first attempted to file a report on the incident at Temple's police department, but was rebuffed because it was headed by Bergman and Bittenbender. He subsequently filed his report with the Philadelphia police department, and sued Temple in November of 2000. He is being represented by the American Family Association's Center for Law & Policy (CLP).

    VILLANOVA UNIVERSITY, for the treatment of its students who wanted Charlton Heston to speak on campus in 2000.
    When students requested him as a speaker, Villanova claimed that the NRA president was "too controversial", and refused to pick up his basic fees, including his hotel room and security--even after Heston offered to waive his normal speaking fees ($20-30,000). Instead, the Villanova Times was required to pick up the fees for the extra security needed for the anticipated protestors --protestors from Villanova's own Center for Peace and Justice, which is funded by the university itself.

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