The University of Oklahoma has removed an instructor from teaching duties over her decision to fail a paper on gender that cited the Bible, in a case that has provoked a debate over academic freedom and what speech is protected in the classroom.
An undergraduate student at the university had complained to the school after she received a zero on a paper in which she cited the Bible to argue that “the lie that there are multiple genders” is “demonic.” The instructor said the assignment had not met her requirements, noting also that it was “offensive.”
The public university put the psychology instructor, a graduate student, on administrative leave, and on Monday, the university announced she would no longer have teaching duties at the university.
In a statement, school officials said they had reviewed the instructor’s prior grading standards and determined she “was arbitrary in the grading of this specific paper.”
The university did not immediately respond to questions about how it arrived at that determination.
The student’s complaint had been amplified by Turning Point USA and others on social media, and even the Oklahoma governor had weighed in, framing the matter as one of the student’s First Amendment rights. It followed other cases of university instructors who were removed from the classroom after students complained on social media and politicians commented, including at least one teacher who was fired. At Texas A&M, an instructor lost her job after a student videotaped a gender identity lesson in a children’s literature course.
The University of Oklahoma “believes strongly in both its faculty’s rights to teach with academic freedom and integrity and its students’ right to receive an education that is free from a lecturer’s impermissible evaluative standards,” the statement said. “We are committed to teaching students how to think, not what to think.”
But the university’s decision troubled advocates of faculty rights. Todd Wolfson, the president of the American Association of University Professors, called the university’s decision a violation of academic freedom.
“Faculty and instructors have the professional responsibility to evaluate student work according to established academic standards, and this paper did not meet requirements,” he said in a statement. “The university’s actions are an escalation of far-right efforts to politicize, surveil and discipline instruction, undermining the integrity of higher education.”
The instructor, Mel Curth, did not immediately respond to a message on Tuesday. Her lawyer, Brittany M. Stewart, said Ms. Curth continues to deny grading the paper arbitrarily and “is considering all of her legal remedies, including appealing this decision.”
Ms. Curth had previously written that she deducted points from the student because the essay “does not answer the questions for this assignment, contradicts itself, heavily uses personal ideology over empirical evidence in a scientific class, and is at times offensive,” according to a local newspaper, The Oklahoman.
The undergraduate, Samantha Fulnecky, a junior psychology major who intends to go to medical school, did not respond to a message. In a previous interview, she said she had gotten good grades and had enjoyed the class, “Lifespan Development,” before she failed what seemed like a routine assignment.
The assignment was to read a scholarly article that explored the relationship between “gender typicality” — being typical of one’s gender group — and popularity and then write a “thoughtful discussion of some aspect of the article.”
The paper, which was previously published by The Oklahoman, would be graded on responsiveness to the assigned article, thoughtfulness and clarity of writing.
Ms. Fulnecky began her paper by writing that the article was “very thought provoking and caused me to thoroughly evaluate the idea of gender and the role it plays in our society.”
The rest of her 750-word paper cited biblical sources. “My prayer for the world and specifically for American society and youth,” she wrote, “is that they would not believe the lies being spread from Satan that make them believe they are better off as another gender than what God made them.”
She appeared to acknowledge that her argument might spark controversy, also writing that “it is important to use the freedom of speech we have been given in this country.”
When Ms. Fulnecky contacted the professor requesting a grade change, Ms. Curth wrote that empirical evidence is needed when challenging the findings of a paper or scholarly consensus, according to The Oklahoman.
“If you took a geology class and argued that the earth was flat, something contrary to the academic consensus of that field, then you would be asked to provide evidence of such, not just personal ideology,” Ms. Curth wrote.
Ms. Fulnecky filed a grade appeal, which the university had granted, removing the assignment from her total point value. She had also filed a claim of religious discrimination in the course. The university on Monday said it had concluded investigating that complaint but did not release its finding.
Kitty Bennett contributed reporting.
Vimal Patel writes about higher education for The Times with a focus on speech and campus culture.
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