Classics exorcised, school excoriated

0 Comments | Insight on the News, March 25, 1996 | by Ty Clevenger

Georgetown University's decision to make classes on Shakespeare and other literary greats optional for English majors could hit the school right in the checkbook. William Peter Blatty, author of The Exorcist and a 1950 alumnus, already has decided to write his alma mater out of his will because he believes it has drifted from its academic standards and Catholic roots.

"This is not a step taken easily -- if Georgetown had not given me a scholarship, I likely would not have attended college," says Blatty. But "enough is enough." Other alumni, one of whom had planned to leave the school as much as $500,000, also are reconsidering their bequests because of the English policy changes, according to Blatty, who declines to identify them.

Under the university's new guidelines, which took effect with this year's freshman class, English majors graduating in 1999 can substitute courses such as "History/Theories of Sexuality" and "Women, Revolution and Media" for offerings on Milton and Chaucer. The change led to the formation of a campus group that is asking alumni to withhold donations to the 207-year-old Catholic school and is pushing for a student vote on the issue.

"We've sort of moved the debate onto a second level," says James Morrow, an international-politics major. "Students from all majors are taking up the cause -- if this happens in English, this could happen in history of government or somewhere else." Other students plan to send letters and negative press clippings on the new curriculum to alumni.

University officials counter that nearly 180 students have signed a petition supporting the English curriculum changes; a university spokeswoman said the faculty will not bow to financial pressure. "Any university faculty that would allow itself to be intimidated in such a manner would be a disgrace," says Alwyn Castle. "It is wrong to use donations as a hammer to control curriculum decisions."

Conservative critics say the curriculum changes are only their latest worry about the school. Georgetown prompted an outcry in 1990 when it gave funds to a student group supporting legalized abortion. Opponents of the decision sent appeals to Pope John Paul II before the university withdrew funding.

"I think this is the latest manifestation of a politically correct agenda put in place by [Georgetown University President] Leo O'Donovan," says Dick Coleman, a 1957 graduate and former student-body president. "I am totally disaffected with the university." Coleman, a California lawyer, is sending contributions to Pepperdine University in Malibu instead.

Some students say the English curriculum already was sliding before the latest changes were announced. In recent years, only about 15 percent of the department's course offerings have been classical authors, while the rest have included subjects ranging from homosexual to Caribbean literature. Freshman Joseph Flahive says a search of the registrar's records since 1993 turned up no classes about Mark Twain or Charles Dickens.

"This has been a matter of incremental change," says one English professor who asked not to be identified. "It has caused great difficulty in the department." But Wayne Knoll, a member of the department for 25 years who opposes the new curriculum, says he will "cede to the victors with grace." And Castle believes the debate has "unified the department" toward effecting the change.

"They want students to come with open hearts and open minds to pursue literature," she says of the faculty. "The bottom line is volunteer vs. conscription."