First Female African-American Prof sacked, I Mean Parts Ways, With Wheaton College

There is a very important debate going on about whether higher education institutions should be properly accredited if they constrain their faculty to only believing, or adhering to party lines. These is something deeply anti-intellectual, anti-educational about such conformist and dogmatic approaches to life and learning. Critical analysis and critical studies take the back seat; doctrine and dogma come to the fore, and the whole process looks rather like an echo chamber of repeating mantras.

As TheHumanist.com reports:

On February 10, Wheaton College officials and Wheaton Professor Larycia Hawkins gave a press conference in which they announced they had mutually agreed to part ways. “Publicly the school and Dr. Hawkins say they are in agreement about terms of her departure,” but the details remain confidential.

Wheaton had attempted to fire the political science professor for heresy, maybe even apostasy. Hawkins—the school’s first tenured African-American female professor—was placed on administrative leave for wearing a hijab in support of Muslims. According to college officials, the real problem was her claim that Christians and Muslims worship the same God. This wasn’t the first time Hawkins had run afoul of the Wheaton thought police. According to the Chicago Tribune, Hawkins had been reprimanded four times since she started teaching at Wheaton nine years ago. In addition to the latest debacle, she was called out once over a paper on black liberation theology that one college official thought smacked of Marxism, once over a Facebook photo that put her too close to a gay pride parade, and yet again when she suggested diversifying the college curriculum to include discussions of sexuality.

Wheaton’s handling of a college professor who is apparently an engaged, thinking human being, is a fine example of what Peter Conn was talking about in his essay “The Great Accreditation Farce” published last year in The Chronicle of Higher Education. Conn argues that an Evangelical (Fundamentalist) college—he specifies Wheaton—should not be granted accreditation. “Skeptical and unfettered inquiry is the hallmark of American teaching and research,” he writes. “However, such inquiry cannot flourish—in many cases, cannot even survive—inside institutions that erect religious tests for truth.” He concludes, “The contradiction is obvious.”

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John Loftus over at Debunking Christianity has long been complaining about such accreditation issues. I think there is a fundamental flaw in a system that allows colleges and educational institutions to make such stringent requirements of their staff, their educators.

EDIT

For clarity, the point at hand is one of accreditation, not of contravening a contract. Accreditation is important and has ramifications:

There are several reasons accreditation is important besides ensurance of quality and adherence to academic standards. Accreditation determines a school's eligibility for participation in federal (Title IV) and state financial aid programs, as well as eligibility for employer tuition assistance. Proper accreditation is integral for the acceptance and transfer of college credit, and is a prerequisite for many graduate programs. In addition, degrees attained from a school without regional accreditation may not be as accepted for professions that require licensure... Source

Why did I mention race and gender? Well, the idea is one of diversity: cultural and intellectual. Here they had a chance to show that they are embracing diversity, and then they go on and alienate and punish diverse thinking.

Teach exactly what we tell you in this here institution of education, and you may keep your job. Go off piste, follow the evidence (heaven forbid teach your students to critically analyse and question) - get sacked. I don't advocate signing such dictatorial agreements in an institute of higher education.

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