As Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Religion, I write to question and object to the content of an article that appeared in the DFP on Thursday January 23.
The article “Nixed Classes not Due to Budget Issues” by Neela Swaminathan contains a number of factual errors concerning the Religion Department and our courses.
The article purports to present the content of an interview with an “Undergraduate Programs Director, Sarah Abbott.” But Ms. Abbott is not the Director of Undergraduate Programs; I am. Anyone who visits our website, or consults the BU Bulletin, will see that the Departmental Director of Undergraduate Studies is myself, Prof. Jonathan Klawans. Hence two corrections: First, the article misidentified the Director of Undergraduate Studies. Second, no reporter contacted the Director.
Worse: the article strongly implies that a class was cancelled this past semester due to “normal lack of interest.” I know of no “normal lack of interest” among BU students toward our courses. Classes are canceled extremely rarely, and then usually because a professor is either going on leave or assuming at short notice significant additional administrative responsibilities. (This did occur this past semester.) More to the point: NO RELIGION CLASS WHATSOEVER was canceled this past semester due to any lack of interest, normal or otherwise.
I hope that your readers can be made aware of these important corrections.
Prof. Jonathan Klawans Director of Undergraduate Studies Department of Religion 617/353-4432 jklawans@bu.edu
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
