U. of I. to review Catholic instructor's firing

URBANA, Ill. -- A faculty group at the University of Illinois' flagship campus will review the decision to fire an adjunct religion professor for saying he agreed with Catholic doctrine on homosexuality.

Urbana-Champaign campus Chancellor Robert Easter said Monday he hopes to have a decision on the firing of Kenneth Howell from the Faculty Senate's Committee on Academic Freedom and Tenure by the time fall classes start. The review is to determine whether Howell's academic freedom was violated.

"We want to be able to reassure ourselves there was no infringement on academic freedom here," new university President Michael Hogan told members of the Faculty Senate on Monday. "This is a very, very important, not to mention a touchy and sensitive, issue. Did this cross the line somehow?"

Howell taught classes on Catholicism. He was fired at the end of the spring semester after a class discussion of the Catholic prohibition of homosexual sex. Howell has told students that, as a Catholic, he agrees with it and says he's always been open with students about his beliefs.

A friend of an unidentified student complained in a May 13 e-mail to Robert McKim, head of the religion department, that Howell's stance amounted to "hate speech." The e-mail led to Howell's firing.

Matt Finkin, a professor who will become chairman of the committee next month, said it's possible the review will be finished by the time classes start on Aug. 23.

"If the facts are sufficiently clear, if we don't need a hearing to resolve controversial facts, if the policy is clear as to how it plays out on the agreed-upon facts, it's conceivable we could have a report by that time," he told The (Champaign) News-Gazette.

Both Hogan and Easter said Monday that the Faculty Senate also may want to review the university's relationship with St. John's Catholic Newman Center on campus. Howell worked for the center until he lost his teaching position. The center said that it paid him to teach and, since he's no longer an instructor, let him go.

Howell was recognized by the religion department in 2008 and 2009 for being rated an excellent teacher by students.