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| From the issue dated January 21, 2005 |
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary Hires Intelligent-Design Theorist; UCLA Political Scientist 'Boycotts' Economics Journals
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In 1999 William A. Dembski, 44, helped Baylor start a center for the study of intelligent design. By the fall of 2000, he had lost his directorship, and the center was dissolved.
Since then, Mr. Dembski has not taught a course at Baylor -- "No department has been willing to let me" -- nor has he spent more than a few days a month on the Baylor campus. "I work at home," he says. "Sometimes I take my family to the dining hall." His contract is due to expire this spring.
"My work is too controversial for them," he explains. Mr. Dembski is a proponent of "intelligent design," which argues that Darwinian explanations of natural history are insufficient. In 2000, members of the faculty at Baylor strongly objected to president Robert B. Sloan Jr.'s decision to create a center to study the idea. Mr. Sloan's decision to emphasize Christian values at the university generated bad feelings, says Mr. Dembski. "I was increasingly seen as a political liability."
The associate research professor attempted to extend his stay at Baylor but says he was rebuffed. The university's provost, David L. Jeffrey, said through a spokesman that the funds to renew his contract were not available. In June Mr. Dembski will take a position at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, as director of its new Center for Science and Theology.
The dean of the seminary's School of Theology, Russell D. Moore, says the center will help evangelicals engage with Darwinism from a Christian perspective. "Intelligent design is posing questions that need to be asked and are being shut out of public debate," he says.
For his part, Mr. Dembski doesn't worry about preaching to the choir. "I was so ostracized at Baylor that I had very few colleagues I could talk to there," he says. "This will give me the opportunity to influence a huge body of believers who are sympathetic with what I'm doing."
-- Daniel Engber
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PAPER PROTEST: Susanne Lohmann has found an unusual way to protest the fact that the economics department at the University of California at Los Angeles has refused to grant her a joint appointment. She says she is "boycotting" requests to review articles submitted to national economics journals.
Ms. Lohmann, who has been a professor in the political-science department at UCLA since 1993 but earned her Ph.D. in economics, has long wanted to be part of the university's economics department. Her interdisciplinary research has been published in both leading economics and political-science journals. One international ranking of scholars shows her work cited more often than that of any other female economist in the world.
But the economics department at UCLA rejected her bid for a joint appointment in 2000 and has refused to reconsider. "Economics is very, very narrow and hostile toward new approaches," she says. Ms. Lohmann, who is 43 and a native of Germany, is now considering a job offer in economics from the University of Hamburg.
Professors in UCLA's economics department acknowledge that Ms. Lohmann is a good scholar. "Intellectually, she's certainly on par with other members of the department," says David K. Levine, interim chairman. But he says the bottom line in the department's decision to reject her was her "horrible personality." And he says he can't imagine why she would think refusing to review articles would improve her bid to join the department.
So far, Ms. Lohmann has turned down at least two dozen requests to review articles submitted to major economics journals. She won't halt her boycott, she says, until UCLA's economics department makes her a member.
-- Robin Wilson
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COMINGS AND GOINGS: Fred Maryanski, interim provost at the University of Connecticut, has been named the next president of Nevada State College at Henderson. But two regents voted against the move because Mr. Maryanski's $225,000 salary makes him the second-highest-paid administrator in the state -- earning even more than the president of the University of Nevada at Reno. ... Faculty leaders at Utah State University say a national search to replace President Kermit L. Hall is unnecessary. In a letter to the Board of Regents this month, current and past leaders of the Faculty Senate strongly endorsed Stan L. Albrecht, the current provost. He was runner-up to Mr. Hall in 2000.
http://chronicle.com
Section: The Faculty
Volume 51, Issue 20, Page A7