From alaura@u.washington.edu Wed Apr 23 12:23:21 1997 Received: from jason04.u.washington.edu (jason04.u.washington.edu [140.142.78.5]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW96.12/8.8.4+UW97.03) with ESMTP id MAA38658 for ; Wed, 23 Apr 1997 12:23:20 -0700 Received: from homer34.u.washington.edu (homer34.u.washington.edu [140.142.77.15]) by jason04.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW96.12/8.8.4+UW97.03) with ESMTP id MAA10790 for ; Wed, 23 Apr 1997 12:23:20 -0700 Received: from localhost (alaura@localhost) by homer34.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW96.12/8.8.4+UW97.03) with SMTP id MAA62984 for ; Wed, 23 Apr 1997 12:23:20 -0700 Date: Wed, 23 Apr 1997 12:23:19 -0700 (PDT) From: Suzanne Klinger To: uwtpride@u.washington.edu Subject: Idaho funding decision Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII >From The Chronicle of Higher Education's website -- with thanks to Steve Sanders for the downloading. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, 22 Apr 1997 15:41:34 -0500 (EST) From: Steve Sanders To: Ken Sherrill Subject: anti-gay funding decision in Idaho Idaho Board of Education Denies Funds for a Study of Gay Communities By KIM STROSNIDER Fearful of offending taxpayers, the Idaho Board of Education has voted not to support a project by an Idaho State University professor that would have explored the origins of gay communities in the Pacific Northwest. The vote represents only the second time in a decade that the board has quashed a project out of fear it might be considered offensive. The board also decided to change the make-up of an advisory group that recommends such grants, although the board denied that the two actions were connected. "In a nutshell, I believe the feeling was that this particular project was out of sync with the Idaho state taxpayers," said Rayburn Barton, executive director of the board. The other 15 projects on the board's agenda last Thursday were approved, for a total of $439,300 in grants. Dr. Barton said the eight board members were unanimous in their disapproval of the gay-communities project, proposed by Peter G. Boag, an associate professor of history at Idaho State. The actual vote was 5 to 3, however, because some board members wanted to eliminate grants for several other projects as well. Dr. Boag said he was deeply disappointed by the board's action. "It's shocking and sad," he said. He called the decision "a homophobic reaction." "I believe that the state Board of Education refused to fund my grant because it does deal with homosexuality, the development of homosexual communities, and it deals with the issue of sex," he said. Dr. Boag said he had received some early hints that the board might find his project unpalatable. He said he had changed the title and rewritten a layman's summary of the project to increase the chances of its winning approval. The original title was "Sexual Politics and Communities in the Rural and Urban Pacific Northwest, 1870-1920." Dr. Boag said he changed it to "Progressive Politics and Social Control in the Rural and Urban Pacific Northwest, 1870-1920." "I had a feeling somewhere along the way that I would probably get the ax because of the nature of my study -- and because this is Idaho," Dr. Boag said Before it reached the state Board of Education, the proposal had been reviewed by out-of-state experts and had been recommended for a grant by the Higher Education Research Council, which advises the Board of Education. Dr. Boag said he understood that his project had received a high score. But when the board got it, he said, "they flipped." Dr. Barton, the board's executive director, said the board had also voted last Thursday to change the composition of the Higher Education Research Council, replacing university research officers (such as graduate-school deans and vice-provosts) with the presidents of the state's four public institutions: Idaho State University, the University of Idaho, Boise State University, and Lewis-Clark State College. He denied that that action had anything to do with the board's disapproval of Dr. Boag's project. Instead, he said, it was a "temporary substitution" made at a time when the board wanted to shift research money to projects that are linked to issues of pressing importance in Idaho, such as water quality, nuclear clean-up, and restoration of native fish like the salmon. Dr. Barton said the new direction was not meant to rule out financing for social-science projects in Idaho. "Social sciences certainly can contribute -- do contribute -- to the resolution of state problems," he said. He said he could not recall details of the one other project that was recommended for a grant but then voted down by the Board of Education. He said he believed it dealt with cartoons. Russell Wahl, a philosophy professor who chairs the Idaho State University Faculty Senate, said he believed the decision to reconstitute the council was linked to the board's rejection of Dr. Boag's projects. "I think this is a shame that this happened," he said of the vote against Dr. Boag's research. "It does not send a good message to faculty doing research." Dr. Wahl said faculty members would discuss the matter with administrators at a meeting on Wednesday. As for Dr. Boag, he has vowed to press on with his research without the $30,000 grant he had sought from the state. The money would have financed his release from classes this fall and helped pay for travel. Now, he said, the project will probably just take longer to complete. He said the study would examine urban and rural gay communities, and their connections, particularly in Seattle, Boise, and Portland, Ore. Ultimately, he hopes to publish his findings in a book, his second. The state board's rejection, he said, "encourages me even more." _______________________________________________________________________ Steve Sanders Phone: 812-855-2814 Indiana University FAX: 812-855-2060 Kirkwood Hall 104 E-mail: sanderss@indiana.edu Bloomington, IN 47405 http://ezinfo.ucs.indiana.edu/~sanderss/ Visit *the* web site for resources on Gay and Lesbian Politics: http://ezinfo.ucs.indiana.edu/~sanderss/gaylespolguide.html .