European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 1, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse A saturdays june .1, 1991 the stars and stripes Page 13 commentary James j. Kilpatrick Iii wind blows 6t College p it is said of certain swell Heads in a Fine american idiom that they get too big for their britches. The observation applies richly these Days to the Middle states association of colleges and schools. It has embarked upon a dictatorial course that is transforming the association into the meddlesome Molly of higher education. A. A. A a. To understand this ominous course of events you should know that in the academic world accreditation is the be All and end All. A College or University that is officially accredited qualifies for various forms of Federal Aid. Without accreditation the institution loses such support a a a -7 7 77. There is More. Private support accredited colleges they will rarely support an Unac Cre edited College. Students in need of Federal Grants or Loans a often among the most desirable students a Are foreclosed from attending a pariah institution. For a school to be denied accreditation is to Bear the Mark of the outcast Cain. The Middle states association is the largest and most influential of six regional accrediting agencies it holds life or death Power Over Al four year member colleges in six Eastern states. A roughly 60 other agencies offer supplementary accreditation in such specialized Fields As journalism Law. And Christian theology but it is. Middle states word that matters. Quot. Until december 1988, Middle states made its rulings on academic Criter i that were More or less measurable How Many books were in the lib try what Basic courses were included in the curriculum. How Many faculty members had doctorates what was the a academic publication and research r then a trendy wind swept through the associations a corridors. Of All Honable new criteria superseded the old rules. Now Middle states decreed that an institution could lose its priceless accreditation if it failed to provide evidence of a a diversity and a a pluralism in certain respects. 7 a. A a the first Well publicized victim of the new conformity was Baruch College in new York City which was ordered to put More Blacks on its faculty As the Price of renewed accreditation. Baruch caved in. Then in Manifest contempt Lor first amendment a guarantees of religious Freedom Middle states turned. Its doctrinaire Eye upon colleges that Are religiously oriented. About 2 it of these have been . If they do not shape up. 7�?T&Quot a a Quot 7 the threat to Westminster theological Seminary in suburban Philadelphia is not veiled at All. Westminster t. Is a staunchly presbyterian institution founded 60 years ago that serves 550 graduate students who Are prospective ministers and Church leaders. Its religious tenets in one regard Are Clear Westminster does not a Anthony Lewis prove of the ordination of women. Relying upon its interpretation of scripture the Seminary restricts membership on its Board to men Only. 7 Middle states has found this religious Tenet intolerable. On March 7, 1090, after months of fruitless conversations Robert h. Chambers vice chairman of Middle states come Mission on higher education signed the death penalty. Either Westminster puts women on its Board or Westminster will lose its accreditation. Taking on a kind of judicial Mantle As part of its Ove tween ing image the commission issued a show cause order. Since the new criteria were pronounced said Chambers a the commission has never warred in its it will not waver now 7westminster will not waver either. On april 26. It filed a formal complaint with the Council on pos secondary accreditation charging that Middle states socially Correct criteria amount to an unwarranted and. Wrongheaded intrusion upon academic Freedom. Or la new demand that Board members reflect. A in Points of View a the seminars different Points of View a an atheistic Point of View an agnostic Point of 1 he criteria demand members with a Dit Terem what different interests members must a it what ave Quot pit Lerent experiences. Said counsel William b. Ball a the provisions Are incomprehensibly and so indeed they Are. But the evil in this affair does not lie in lawyerly standards of specificity. Middle states for All practical purposes is an Agency of the . Government. As such it is entangling the government in religious decisions that quite simply none of the governments business. Education Secretary Lamar Alexander die Power to Stop this intolerable Middle states should be advised if he does t. Congress will. C us Versill pro is Syndicate ate has frivolous lawsuits undermine american Law offers numerous examples of vexatious litigation a abusive inflated meritless lawsuits. But my Candi Date for the prize in outrageousness is a libel suit still making its Way through the courts. It is called immune . Is. Moor Jankowski. _ the Case began in 1983 with a letter to the editor of the journal of medical primatology a specialist journal with just 300 subscribers. _ the letter was from or. Shirley me _ Garcal chairwoman of the International primate Protection league. _ Mcgreal criticized a plan by immune. A. Multinational corporation based in Austria to do hepatitis research in Sierra Leone West Africa using captured chimpanzees. She said the plan could greatly a june the Chimpanzee population Becaum the animals Are usually captured by lolling their mothers. ,. Mcgreal also argued that any chimpanzees Quot returned to the wild after experiments could spread hepatitis to others immune Bronchi a libel suit in the new York seven other ave aces. One o courts against Mcgreal and aiming 54 million i dam he other. Defendants was or. Jan Moor Jankowski professor at the new York University medical school and the unpaid editor of the journal of medical primatology. Imn Iuno a lawyer Raymond s. Fersko questioned at extensive depositions. Lie questioned Mcgreal about International conferences on endangered species and asked -.7 _ 7. A did you Ever perform any sexual nets at any it ii these conferences to try to persuade delegates to vote a particular Way a a Mcgreal a lawyer i Lenry a Kaufman. Moved to strike the question and said to Fersko a a they must really be paying Yot for this Moor Jankovski was questioned. At depositions lasting 14 Days one of them in Austria. The record in the Case grew to thousands of pages a before trial. The pressure of the litigation was so heavy that All the defendants but Moor Jankowski gave appellate. Division of the new York supreme court said immune a succeeded in coercing Quot substantial settlements out of them a for the obvious reason that the costs of continuing to defend the Actium were prohibit. . ,. Mcgreal a insurance company settled after spending $250,000 on the Case. But Mcgreal herself did not retract anything. Moor Jankowski would not give up. His lawyer Philip a. Byler moved for summary judgment. In 1989 new Yorkus highest court the court of appeals decided in his favor. It held that Mcgreal a. V. Letter was a statement of opinion and therefore not actionable a because Only false facts not opinion can he libellous. Then last year the . Supreme court sent the Case Back to the new York court of appeals for another look. If pointed to a recent decision that under Federal Law opinion that relies on lads can be the subject of libel suits challenging the facts. A in january the court of appeals decided again for Moor Jankowski. Judge Judith Kaye found nothing libellous in Mcgreal a letter by Federal standards. She went on to hold for the court that in any event the letter was independently protected by the new York slate constitutions ringing Promise that a every citizen May freely speak write and publish. Sentiments on All a t he . Supreme court has no Power to review decisions based independently or it state Law. Nevertheless pm Munoz a lawyers have now filed another petition in the court 190 pages Long asking it to hear the Case. The petition struggles feebly a preposterously a to avoid the reality that new York Law has disposed of this libel suit. A Rule 42.2 of the supreme court rules allows the court to award damages against a party or its lawyer for a a frivolous Quot petition. T his would be an appropriate Case to apply that Rule. But no award now could really cure the injury of this Case to our Legal system a or to Moor Jankowski. His Legal expenses so far exceed $1 million. He has spent most of the last seven years on Law instead of medical research. Open debate crucially important to science has been chilled. 4 All that for a letter to the editor. The right Way the american Way. To Challenge such a letter is to answer it. Moor Jankowski in fact asked immune to reply. Instead it sued. Somehow our Law mul make Clear to giant foil Pirn companies among other a that in this count re we Honor and protect tree up cell a
