A professor at the Southern Illinois University has backed down from her refusal to grade a Christian graduate student's paper on post-abortion syndrome in women, allowing the student to complete the course and graduate, an SIU official told LifeSiteNews.com today.
The response comes just two days after attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund Center for Academic Freedom sent a letter Wednesday protesting to SIU officials that Christine Mize, a Christian graduate student in social work, was wrongly given an "incomplete" by her professor, Dr. Laura Dreuth Zeman, who was punishing her for her Christian views.
"To the best of my knowledge, Christine Mize's paper has been graded by Dr. Zeman today and the grade is being posted to the university's Records office," Dr. Mizan R. Miah, the director of the School of Social Work at SIU told LifeSiteNews. "The student surely will be notified soon."
The controversy began when Dr. Zeman told graduate student Christine Mize that she would downgrade her paper on a therapy plan for women suffering from post-abortion syndrome if Mize went through with her intention to include a faith-based section in the recovery plan. Mize chose her topic as part of an assignment to create an eight-week therapy program based on a topic of her own choosing and supported by independent research.
Although Mize decided to write her paper without the faith-based section rather than have the paper downgraded, she provided Dr. Zeman with legal information on her constitutional right to include religion in her assignments when it is appropriate to the topic. Dr. Zeman then refused to grade the paper giving Mize an "incomplete" for the course putting Mize's graduation in jeopardy.
After filing repeated unsuccessful appeals to school administrators, including an official grievance letter with SIU, Mize turned to the ADF Center for Academic Freedom for assistance.
"Christian students do not forsake their constitutional right to express their faith-based views the minute they step on a university campus," said ADF Litigation Counsel Amy Smith. Smith described Mize's experience as "just another example of how Christian students are being punished at our nation's public universities for expressing viewpoints that are not ‘politically correct'."
