A sermonizing Wisconsin community college professor has agreed to mend his ways following the FFRF’s intervention.
Madison College Professor Hiep S. Van Dong, an instructor in the School of Business and Applied Arts, had been encouraging students in his Leadership, Ethics and Development course to add religion to their lives, both verbally in class and via email. Van Dong explained to a student in an email that he has “discovered it isn’t about do’s and don’ts, it is about a personal relationship with a living God.”
“Federal courts have upheld public universities’ restrictions on a professor’s religious expression in the classroom and other like settings,” FFRF Legal Fellow Ryan Jayne wrote in August to Madison College School of Business and Applied Arts Dean Bryan Woodhouse. “These restrictions do not abridge the professor’s free speech rights.”
Woodhouse recently responded that he had conducted an inquiry and had asked Van Dong to modify his teaching approach.
“Instructor Van Dong and I have discussed that as public servants we cannot take a position of any kind for or against religion, and that our classrooms are filled with persons of all perspectives and that we have a great responsibility to maintain a classroom environment that welcomes all opinions,” Woodhouse wrote back.
