September 21, 1999
LAWRENCE -- The University of Kansas student senate overwhelmingly passed a resolution Sept. 15 criticizing the decision of the Kansas Board of Education to remove evolution from statewide assessment tests. The resolution passed by a voice vote. Two of the student senate's 66 members voted no.
The resolution reads in part: "We disagree wholeheartedly with the KBOE decision, and even though we realize that it will not heal all of the injuries the KBOE has caused, we urge that evolution be returned to statewide assessment tests. We also urge that every science teacher in the state be made to feel confident that he or she can teach evolution in science class without opposing pressure or coercion."
Partha Mazumdar, head of the leading graduate student organization at KU; Korb Maxwell, the student body president; and Luke Pfannenstiel, the leader of the party that opposed Maxwell in last year's elections, wrote the resolution, which says of the members of the education board: "They have revealed themselves for what they are: politicians attempting to proselytize a religious belief in the classrooms of Kansas."
The resolution also says that the student senate takes "religion seriously ... We do not eschew religion, we simply believe that it has no place in science class. The teachings of science and the teachings of religion inhabit different areas of one's education; they do not overlap and they are not in conflict."
Mazumdar, Maxwell and Pfannenstiel said that the voices of Kansas students had been lost in the political and media discourse that arose from the board's decision. They wrote that: "Despite its undeserved national reputation of being a place of sweltering heat and hayseeds, Kansas has a long history, dating from John Brown, of being a political and cultural leader. The KBOE's decision must be repealed so we can make our return to this place."