Inside Higher Ed has a detailed article on the going dispute between La Sierra University, in Riverside, CA, and its sponsoring denomination, the Seventh-day Adventist Church, on whether and how the school may teach evolution alongside the church’s teachings regarding six-day creation. The dispute began when a biology professor insisted that a student had to demonstrate an understanding of evolutionary theory before delving into creationist arguments.
In the controversy, La Sierra is caught between two accrediting groups using different measuring sticks. There is the Adventist association, which measures the university’s fidelity to church beliefs and judges whether it will remain an Adventist institution. And there is the academic accreditor, the Western Association of Schools and Colleges’ Accrediting Commission for Senior Colleges and Universities, which includes measures of academic freedom and institutional autonomy in its evaluation. WASC renewed La Sierra’s accreditation for another eight years in August 2010.
The dispute has financial implications as well as religious and educational. The University receives $4 million in support from the denomination.
