by Leigh Jones

Read the sports commentary by Sean Keeler here ...

ISU cancels class on biblical principles in business

Officials at Iowa State University decided the business management class would include too much religion for a public university

Shortly before the start of the spring semester, Iowa State University cancelled an independent study course designed to teach students about how biblical principles can be applied to business management.

School officials, who initially approved the course, cancelled it after several professors from the education and religious studies departments, along with the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa, complained that the subject matter violated the Constitution’s Establishment Clause, which sets out what is generally referred to as the separation of church and state.

Rick Dark, chair of the university’s accounting and finance departments, told the Iowa State Daily, the student newspaper, that he eventually decided Professor Roger Stover’s course had too much religious content for a public university.

“In reality, the course was too much on the religious side and not enough on the management side,” Dark said.

But David Cortman, senior counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, said Supreme Court rulings have upheld the right to study the Bible objectively in public schools and universities.

“It is a shame that certain academics and groups on the left, such as the ACLU, would rather engage in educational censorship than allow true academic freedom,” Cortman said in a prepared statement. “Any objections to the method of teaching the course could have been addressed without canceling the entire course.”

Dark did not respond to repeated requests for comment for this story.

In letters sent to Dark and Labh Hira, dean of the College of Business, the two professors who led the effort to cancel the course said their main objection was to what they described as its apparent lack of objectivity.

Warren Blumenfeld, a professor in the department of curriculum and instruction, said the course sounded like it was intended to promote the Bible and compared the class to attending Sunday School.

Blumenfeld and Hector Avalos, a professor of philosophy and religious studies, took particular issue with the book Stover planned to use — “How to Run Your Business by The Book: A Biblical Blueprint to Bless Your Business” by Dave Anderson.

In a prepared statement issued last week, Stover insisted the book dealt with business management principles, not theology. And he noted that he didn’t agree with all of the book’s prescriptions, which was the whole point of the planned course.

“My intention was to have the students study academic management literature on the topics of the book and use that background to evaluate whether the author’s suggestions have any merit,” said Stover, who has taught at the university since 1979. “This form of inquiry is what business school faculty do all the time. Given the growth of interest in the role of spirituality in business management, our students may well be exposed to this in their career. I feel it is incumbent on us to prepare them for such exposure.”

In his written response to Dark addressing the criticism of the course, Stover pointed to similar classes covering spirituality and business at other universities, including at Princeton and Yale. He also noted that Hobby Lobby and Chick-fil-A, both successful businesses, were known for applying biblical principles in the workplace.

Cortman also argued that the Bible’s ability to offer insight into effective business management was a well- accepted concept.

“The excuse that the Establishment Clause prohibits any objective teaching about the Bible grows tiresome,” he said. CV

This article first published on http://www.worldoncampus.com and was reprinted in Cityview with permission.

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Sports commentary

By Sean Keeler

A quality problem for ISU basketball

The problem isn’t quantity. It’s quality. Also, this: 175. That was the average Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) rank of the teams Iowa State had beaten in men’s basketball as of Monday.

The Cyclones opened the week with a 14-5 record, 4-2 in their first six Big 12 tilts. All of which is great, and has the locals whispering that this team has the goods to break Iowa State’s seven-year NCAA Tournament drought. Which it does, except …

They’ve played just four games against the RPI top 50. And lost all of them.

The problem isn’t quantity. It’s quality.

Crushing a dreadful Texas Tech team on the road won’t punch your ticket to Bracketville. Picking off Kansas, Missouri, Baylor or Kansas State at least once — assuming you hold serve against the teams you’re expected to beat — probably will.
Here’s the bottom line: Regardless of how a Tuesday night trip to Austin shakes out, Saturday at Hilton Coliseum looms as one of those swing games of a campaign that’s starting feel like something different. Something special.

Because here comes Kansas (16-3, 6-0 Big 12 as of Monday). Here comes a golden opportunity. Here comes the smell of a signature victory, the kind you stick at the top of the resume.

The problem isn’t quantity. It’s quality.

Beat Kansas, and it’s 1985 all over again. Or 1995. Or 2001.

The faithful will blow the roof off of Hilton, just like old times, and everyone will gush about how it felt like it did back when Coach Fred Hoiberg was the one dropping threes and slaying dragons some 20 years earlier. The narrative practically writes itself.

Nostalgia is nice. Marquee wins are better.

Conventional wisdom projects the Cyclones hitting the Big 12 tourney with no worse than a 9-9 regular-season conference record, 19-12 overall. Those are classic “bubble” numbers, the sort that at least gets you into the NCAA conversation once push comes to shove. Except …

To pass the eye test, you’ve got to have the right 9-9. There’s got to be something in there that makes you stick in the minds of the suits down in Indianapolis who’ll wind up deciding your postseason fate. Taking down Texas and Iowa in Ames are nice starting points, but they’re hardly a closing argument.

The problem isn’t quantity. It’s quality.

And yet, when it comes to tournament profiles, the Cyclones still have two things going for them: First, they’ve collected zero so-called “bad” losses — defeats to teams outside the RPI top 100. Everyone Iowa State was supposed to take care of, it did.

Second, there’s time. Plenty of chances to capture a moment that defines Hoiberg’s reign the way the football team’s victory over then-No. 2 Oklahoma State did for Paul Rhoads. The Cyclones have six games left against the RPI top 50 — Kansas (rank: 9) and Missouri (10) once each, and two games apiece with Baylor (3) and Kansas State (28).

Of that dirty half-dozen, one scalp is a keeper. Two is a case. And the three-game stretch of Texas on the road, the Jayhawks at home (Jan. 28) and the Wildcats at home (Jan. 31) will probably shape the perception of this journey, for better or worse.

Twenty wins is nice. The Big Dance is better. The former does not guarantee you the latter.

The problem isn’t quantity. It’s quality.

Who did you beat? And where? Topple the giants, respect will follow in kind. Of 38 online mock NCAA brackets tracked by the website “The Bracket Project” (http://bracketproject.50webs.com/matrix.htm), Iowa State was only listed on 14 of them as of Jan. 19.

But the trends are improving: Longtime ESPN.com Bracketologist Joe Lunardi on Monday tabbed the Cyclones as one of his “Last Four In” to the 68-team NCAA field. If that scenario still holds true a month from now, Iowa State’s journey would have to kick off the hard way — in the new first round of games at Dayton, Ohio. But you know what? You’d take it. After all, when you’ve waited this long to get back on the road to glory, what’s another 1,200 miles between friends? CV

Sean Keeler was a sports columnist at The Des Moines Register from 2002-2011. He can be reached at seanmkeeler@gmail.com.