Ian McColgin
12-12-2005, 12:22 PM
Paul Mirecki, up to last week chair of the religious studies department at the University of Kansas, Lawrence, was to teach "Special Topics in Religion: Intelligent Design, Creationism and other Religious Mythologies."
The class had been proposed after the Kansas Board of Education decided to include creationist criticism of evolutionary biology in school science standards.
The class was canceled last week after a private e-mail was hacked out of Mirecki's files and broadcast on the web. In the e-mail Mirecki called religious conservatives "fundies" and said that a course describing intelligent design as mythology would be a "nice slap in their big fat face."
Although written as private communication, Mirecki has publicly apologized for his choice of words.
Also last week, Mirecki claims that he was forced out of his chairmanship due to opposition to the proposed course. Mirecki claims that he was offered no choice but to sign a resignation letter from his chairmanship. That letter was typed on stationary from the dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
"The University penalized me and denied me my Constitutionally protected right to speak and express my mind," he said in a written statement Friday for the Lawrence Journal-World.
He said his career had been ruined and his speaking engagements canceled.
University spokesperson Lynn Bretz said Saturday that Mirecki had resigned the chairmanship last week on the recommendation of faculty members and that the university "stands unequivocally in support of his First Amendment rights and his rights to academic freedom."
Mirecki remains a professor.
Mirecki also said he had retained an attorney.
(Facts mostly from AP)
The class had been proposed after the Kansas Board of Education decided to include creationist criticism of evolutionary biology in school science standards.
The class was canceled last week after a private e-mail was hacked out of Mirecki's files and broadcast on the web. In the e-mail Mirecki called religious conservatives "fundies" and said that a course describing intelligent design as mythology would be a "nice slap in their big fat face."
Although written as private communication, Mirecki has publicly apologized for his choice of words.
Also last week, Mirecki claims that he was forced out of his chairmanship due to opposition to the proposed course. Mirecki claims that he was offered no choice but to sign a resignation letter from his chairmanship. That letter was typed on stationary from the dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
"The University penalized me and denied me my Constitutionally protected right to speak and express my mind," he said in a written statement Friday for the Lawrence Journal-World.
He said his career had been ruined and his speaking engagements canceled.
University spokesperson Lynn Bretz said Saturday that Mirecki had resigned the chairmanship last week on the recommendation of faculty members and that the university "stands unequivocally in support of his First Amendment rights and his rights to academic freedom."
Mirecki remains a professor.
Mirecki also said he had retained an attorney.
(Facts mostly from AP)