Dispute evolves on OU speech by scientist
The controversy brings in paperwork and resolutions by state lawmakers.
By SHANNON MUCHMORE World Staff Writer
Published: 3/30/2009 2:21 AM
Last Modified: 3/30/2009 3:28 AM
State lawmakers hit the University of Oklahoma with a barrage of paperwork earlier this month, crafting resolutions to condemn the school for inviting a noted evolutionary biologist and requesting reams of information about his visit.
In response, OU President David Boren said recently that colleges and universities should be a free marketplace of ideas, and it is inappropriate for legislators to attempt to restrict speech on campuses.
The resolution, which the House didn't have time to put up for a vote, chastised OU for inviting scientist and Oxford professor Richard Dawkins to speak earlier this month as part of the university's celebration of Charles Darwin's 200th birthday.
Rep. Rebecca Hamilton, D-Oklahoma City, filed a lengthy open records request with the university, asking for any correspondence regarding Dawkins' speech, information on any costs to OU, a list of any money Dawkins received and who provided the funds, and any other "pertinent financial information."
Dawkins waived his speaking fees for the event, a university spokeswoman said. Hamilton could not be reached for comment Thursday or Friday.
Boren said free speech on campus should be paramount.
"I can remember debating these issues when I was in the Legislature and I'm proud to stay I always stood on the side of academic freedom in those discussions," Boren said in an interview last week.
Legislators should not be limited in what kind of resolution they can file, but they should be mindful
of free speech issues, Boren said.
"I have great faith in the ability of our students to make their own sound judgments about what they hear," he said.
State Rep. Todd Thomsen, R-Ada, filed a resolution this session opposing Dawkins' invitation to speak at OU and the university's actions "to indoctrinate students in the theory of evolution."
In a phone interview Thursday, Thomsen said the university has a right to bring any speaker it chooses, but is accountable to taxpayers. On behalf of his constituents, Thomsen wanted to present the opinion that Dawkins doesn't represent Oklahoma's ideals.
"They're not in a plastic bubble that can't be touched," he said.
Dawkins' approach doesn't present freedom of thought and opinion, Thomsen said.
"His presence at OU was not about science," he said. "It was to promote an atheistic agenda, and that was very clear."
Richard Broughton, an OU zoology professor and president of Oklahomans for Excellence in Science Education, said the resolution claimed to support a free exchange of ideas on campuses, but actually aimed to restrict freedom of speech.
"It just seemed self-contradictory," he said.
The speech by Dawkins, who decided on the spot to donate $5,000 from his foundation to OESE, was well received by those who attended, he said.
Dawkins likely attracted particular attention because of his outspoken atheism, not just his ideas about evolution, Broughton said.
Dawkins is the author of the best-seller "The God Delusion."
Regardless of whether the majority of Oklahomans believe in evolution, it is a scientific theory that no evidence contradicts, Broughton said.
OESE is a nonprofit organization that supports the teaching of evolution in public schools.
It seems inappropriate for the Legislature to single out one person and try to blacklist them, Broughton said.
"It just seems antithetical to the whole idea of a university," he said.
Dawkins commented on the resolution filed against him when he began his March 6 speech at OU.
The idea that the university could only hear opinions with which the majority of Oklahomans agree is bizarre and offensive, Dawkins said.
"If that principle is accepted, you can kiss goodbye to anything that a university ever stands for," he said. "What's a university for if it only reinforces opinions students already have? As it happens, evolution is a scientific fact as securely established as any fact known in science."
Originally Posted by KABOOKIE
