Student-Prof Spar Over Religion In Term Paper

At Southern Illinois University, a dispute between a graduate student in social work and her professor has captured national attention. The Southern today reports on attempts by student Christine Mize to include in her term paper a section on faith-based therapy for women experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder from abortions. Associate Professor Laura Dreuth-Zeman told Mize that she could not include this in the paper. Mize did not, but turned in with her paper a legal memorandum from the American Center for Law and Justice taking the position that Mize could not be penalized for mentioning religion in her paper. The professor then refused to grade the paper until she consulted with University's legal counsel. That led to a letter from the Alliance Defense Fund demanding that the paper be graded and asking for a written statement from the University that they will not infringe the student's religious rights in the future. (ADF Release). The paper has now been graded, and ADF attorney Amy Smith says: "we hope that Christine Mize can continue on with her education without fear of further reprisals from professors hostile to her faith-based worldview."