Dodging the God Squad

[rug]

August 26, 2013
By Madalyn Dawkins
Madalyn Dawkins is the pseudonym of a senior professor of the humanities at a research university in the West.

I'm an atheist, but I've never revealed that to anyone in all my years as a faculty member because my spouse is a senior college administrator. I've spent most of my professional life avoiding the subject of religion.

I can't tell anyone because it is risky for top administrators, or their partners, to publicly identify as atheist (some prefer "nontheist&quot . I'm not using my real name here.

Faculty members regularly announce themselves to be godless without consequence, but for an administrator—especially a high-ranking one—such an announcement could amount to professional suicide.

Typically, administrative appointments in academe—particularly senior positions like dean, vice president, and president, and particularly at state institutions—are highly political. While top administrators wield a considerable amount of power on their campuses, they are also vulnerable (like their counterparts in the world of politics) to people and forces that can undermine their positions and potentially jeopardize their careers.

http://chronicle.com/article/Dodging-the-God-Squad/141247/

[cbayer]

1. Wow, I look forward to the day when this is no longer the case.

The "God Squad" needs to be challenged, but how is she going to find allies if she and others can not speak.

This sounds so totalitarian. While she provides some anecdotes, how pervasive is this? Is the institution religiously based? Do they also monitor their administrators for other kinds of things? And why is it ok for faculty but not administrators?