University Chancellor Re-Examines Role of Religion in Higher Education

February 2, 2002

Source: The New York Times

On February 2, 2002, The New York Times featured an article on David K. Scott, "who until last spring was chancellor of the University of Massachusetts flagship campus in Amherst... Mr. Scott said he feared that constitutional prohibitions against promoting religion had been used to effectively banish religion from public universities, or at least to 'ghettoize' religion in departments where it can be safely ignored by those who do not study it... Mr. Scott said he would like to see universities revamp the general education requirement to include courses and activities that challenge students to think about 'how to live, how to be with each other, how to be in the universe'... Mr. Scott talks about ideas like turning an abandoned chapel in on campus into 'a center for a new community.' He envisions it as a place where people of different faiths could gather to 'find out what they have in common and to explore how to incorporate these ideas into the curriculum.'"