National Lampoon’s Animal House, a well-known 1978
movie celebrating college hedonism appears quite ancient these
days. For instance, the idea of a Dean of Students attempting to
control the exploits of the “animals” when it comes to sexual
activity remains a historical artifact now found only on certain
religious campuses. Today, rampant sexual activity makes no
difference to college administrators as long as it does not create
some sort of public relations or legal challenge for the
university.
Ironically, administrators are now concerned about a whole new
group with the exact opposite “problem.” There still exist on
college campuses some student groups that believe the outlandish
and old-fashioned idea that students should be held to
theologically informed standards, including sexual standards.
Instead of relying upon administrators, these students think their
group should supervise itself when it comes to these standards and
elect only leaders who share their views. Of course, they also
recognize they could and should not expect the rest of the
university to have those same moral and theological scruples.
Increasingly, though, administrators at universities such as
Vanderbilt and various branches of the University of North Carolina
system find the idea of student groups with theological standards,
especially those related to moral standards about sexual behavior,
repugnant. As a result, they’re exerting control over these groups
by mandating that they loosen up and experience a bit more sexual
freedom. In other words, instead of trying to reform the old
hedonistic animal house, university administrators now want to
force every student group to join the “fun.”
To achieve this end, administrators are requiring or considering
“all comers policies.” These policies require student groups to get
rid of any theological or moral membership standards they may have
for officers or students who belong to the group. In other words,
they want to force Christian religious groups to quit requiring any
theological and moral beliefs for members or officers. Instead, as
the Vanderbilt University provost declared to a group of concerned
religious students, “What I’m going to challenge you to do [is] to
be open to a member that doesn’t share your faith beliefs who could
be a wonderful member… maybe even a leader.” In his view, we need
to have Christian student groups be open to having atheist leaders
with different moral standards.
One could think of this approach as an odd twist on what the
Puritans tried when they caught someone in adultery. Instead of
giving the offending woman a scarlet A for punishment,
administrators may now give every student group a scarlet
A (for All comers policy] to make sure they do not have
any religiously based sexual or theological boundaries. Failing to
abide by the policy means the offending groups will be alienated
and isolated from the community. Nathaniel Hawthorne would have
been impressed.
The fact that these student groups’ standards are rooted in
sacred beliefs proves little more than a nuisance for these
administrators. As the same Vanderbilt administrator told a group
of students concerned about the administration’s policy, “We don’t
want to have personal religious views intrude on good
decision-making on this campus.”
The administrators apparently don’t believe democratic ideals
such as freedom of religion, speech, or assembly apply to this case
either. These minority groups, administrators believe, need to be
forced to embrace the administration’s view of diversity and sexual
freedom. Moreover, the good chance that this policy will reduce the
actual diversity and freedom of student groups as a whole appears
not to be a problem. For example, at Vanderbilt groups such as
Vanderbilt Catholic, the Graduate Christian Fellowship, and
Intervarsity will all likely leave campus this coming year due to
the university’s discriminatory non-discrimination policy.
Apparently, these administrators really do not want diversity if it
includes religious groups with theological standards.
The famous educational philosopher, John Dewey used to say,
“Education is not preparation for life, it is life itself.” For
Dewey the best education initiates students into the same practices
we use in our common life together. In this respect these
universities are initiating students into a political life similar
to that of a communist state like China, where religious groups in
society are denied the freedom to choose their own leaders and the
beliefs of those leaders. As in China, covert dorm churches and
secret religious fellowships will probably spring up on these
campuses. Of course, members will be forced to hide from the prying
eyes of administrators bent on sniffing out unsanctioned university
activities. Welcome to the contemporary university where the old
“animals” control the campus and religious groups are the new
disruptive beasts.
