October 23, 2000

Dr. Laura takes on Baylor, then gets the facts straight
___By George Henson
___Staff Writer
___WACO--Baylor University weathered scathing sarcasm from radio and television talk show host Laura Schlessinger Oct. 16, but received a glowing endorsement, if not an apology, a few days later.
___On the Oct. 16 radio program, "Dr. Laura" read the first two paragraphs of a story from Baylor's student newspaper, The Lariat. The story was about how the university treats students who become pregnant out of wedlock.
___The second paragraph of the Lariat story quoted Jimmy McCluskey, dean of student development and services, as saying: "There was a time when to be pregnant (out of marriage) would have been wrong. But with the changing of time and changing of culture, we have adjusted our policies accordingly."
___After reading that brief excerpt from the story, Schlessinger berated the university. "When the religious schools start collapsing, it all just gets depressing," she said.
___"Does that mean that Jesus just got zapped at Baylor?" she continued, adding sarcastically: "That was a long time ago and the things he said were for a time and place a long time ago. None of it matters anymore. Values, they are a changing. Values are not eternal, they are redesigned decade by decade."
___She concluded that the Baylor statement was one more example of religions pandering to society's values: "That's the liberal way most religions are going that makes them useless, totally useless. They were supposed to be a fortification, preserving the values, now they're just a club that adjusts to the membership."
___What Schlessinger did not know was that the remainder of the Lariat article explained how Baylor has updated its student policy to treat students in a more redemptive manner rather than automatically expelling them.
___Steven Moore, Baylor's vice president for student life, told the Baptist Standard that regardless of what policy is broken by a student, discipline is guided by four principles.
___The university's first priority, he said, is to be redemptive--to let the person know that while what they have done is wrong, they are still of value.
___Second, Baylor seeks to be educational in its discipline of students; the university wants the student to learn from the experience so that it is not repeated, he said.
___Third, the university's discipline also seeks to be contextual--to fit the nature and severity of the violation.
___Fourth, discipline is to be given in a timely manner.
___In the past, the university's policy was that unmarried female students who became pregnant were expelled. But Baylor administrators feared that might cause some young students, fearing expulsion, to have abortions.
___"The thing we didn't want was for the student to get pregnant and feel the school had turned their backs on them," Moore said.
___When the university explained its position to Schlessinger in a letter, she responded with a hearty endorsement.
___"God knows it's a rare university these days that cares about the morality of its students," she said on her Oct. 18 broadcast. "Obviously Baylor University does consider these issues important, and I thank them for bringing this to my attention."
___The radio show's staff said the article came to Schlessinger's attention by way of an anonymous fax.
___The fax included only the first two paragraphs of the Lariat story, not the entire report, said Amir Forester, media manager for the program.

Get printer-friendly version of this story


Send this story to a friend

---

Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!