Jul 14, 2010 / 02:01 am
Administrators at the University of Illinois are asking a faculty committee to review the case of a professor who was fired after a student complained that his explanation of the Catholic teaching on homosexuality was “hate speech.”
Chancellor Robert Easter has asked the University of Illinois' Senate Committee on Academic Freedom and Tenure to determine whether the university violated the academic freedom and right to free speech of adjunct professor Dr. Kenneth Howell.
Howell, who has taught in the university's Department of Religion since 2001, was recently fired for explaining in a class on Catholicism that the Church believes that homosexual behavior violates natural moral law.
University President Michael Hogan addressed faculty senators on Monday, after receiving 100 e-mails about Howell's case, reported The News-Gazette.