
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, May 27, 1993                   TAG: 9305270153
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LYNCHBURG                                LENGTH: Medium

LIBERTY EASES RELIGIOUS STANCE FOR AID

Liberty University is dropping some religious language in its publications and ending required attendance at campus church services in a bid to keep about $1 million a year in state aid.

But Liberty has refused to change three policies as called for by the State Council of Higher Education, including required attendance at campus convocations that the school says are not religious. The convocations routinely include hymns and Christian testimony.

The council will vote Tuesday on whether the partial changes will allow Virginia residents at Liberty to remain eligible for tuition assistance and college scholarship assistance grants. Money for the fall semester hangs in limbo, with students unsure whether they will receive aid - about $1,400 per student.

The Tuition Assistance Grant program was set up to help Virginia residents attend private institutions and lessen the enrollment burden on the state's public universities. But seminaries and religious institutions always have been ineligible.

The council voted in December that restrictions on professors' academic freedom to teach and publish material contrary to Liberty's position be lifted. President Pierre Guillermin told the state in a letter last week that there are no restrictions on academic freedom at Liberty.

Guillermin also said Liberty will keep requiring students and faculty to sign statements agreeing to respect the school's doctrinal position, although they don't have to sign anything saying they believe in or abide by it.

The doctrinal position is a basic statement upholding fundamental Christian beliefs about creationism, the Trinity and salvation only through Jesus Christ.

But in an effort to comply with the state's concerns, Guillermin provided the council with copies of publications dated 1993-94 that have omitted much of the religious language of the current literature.

Gone are the Scripture citations to back up sections about the honor code and prohibitions against immorality. No longer will prospective students have to write an essay describing their salvation experiences; now, students must explain their "personal philosophy of life, including your perspectives regarding traditional family and moral values."

"If all the changes are taken at face value, Liberty will not be much different from a . . . church-related college," like the University of Richmond and Wake Forest University, said Steven Green, attorney for Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

But Green said, "Liberty has a long history of making cosmetic changes or semantic changes that really make no difference."

by CNB