Duke’s Methodist affiliation could eventually render the University unable to police its own campus.
The North Carolina Court of Appeals dismissed drunken driving charges against Julie Yencer Aug. 17, after she argued that because Davidson College is connected with the Presbyterian Church, her arrest by a campus police officer was an excessive and unconstitutional government entanglement with religion. The court held that because Davidson’s governing body retains “significant religious ties”—namely the requirement that 24 of the school’s 44 trustees be active members of the Presbyterian Church—the college can be classified as a religious institution and thus be stripped of its ability to exercise state police power.
While the N.C. Supreme Court has since delayed the enforcement of the decision, citing Davidson’s immediate need to provide public safety on campus, the case has cast a spotlight on schools that maintain religious relationships and sparked debate about the separation of church and state on campuses. Although Duke’s ties to the United Methodist Church are not as strong as those between Davidson and the Presbyterian Church, its affiliation with the church may make it susceptible to a similar legal challenge.
Indeed, Durham-based attorney Bill Thomas plans to challenge Duke University Police Department’s arrest powers on the same grounds.
“I think you’ll see that in the immediate future,” Thomas told the Herald-Sun.
He added that language in Duke’s bylaws suggests an “adherence to the Christian tradition and [the promotion of] Christianity.” He did not respond to repeated requests for comment from The Chronicle.
Duke’s bylaws state that the University’s aims are to “assert a faith in the eternal union of knowledge and religion set forth in the teachings and character of Jesus Christ” and specify that of the 36 elected members of the Board of Trustees—Duke’s governing body—24 must be elected by two of North Carolina’s Methodist Conferences.
But Michael Schoenfeld, vice president for public affairs and government relations, stressed that Duke is an independent and non-sectarian institution and that its ties to the church are primarily historical and symbolic.
“The bylaws charge the board with identifying candidates for the Board of Trustees,” Schoenfeld said, explaining that the confirmation of Trustees by the church is purely a formal affair. “There is no religious test for trustees.”
Dean of the Chapel Sam Wells echoed this sentiment and characterized the relationship between Duke and the church as “benign and benevolent.”
“The conferences [of the United Methodist Church] don’t have any of what you might call editorial control,” Wells said. “It’s not something that seems to be problematic to anybody.”
The most explicit manifestation of Duke’s Methodist affiliation lies with its Divinity School, which was founded by and receives funding from the Methodist church.
“We are an officially recognized theological seminary of the United Methodist Church,” said Richard Hays, the recently appointed interim dean of the Divinity School. “About half of our students in our Master of Divinity program, which is the basic professional degree required for ordination in any of the major Protestant churches, are United Methodist.”
Hays made clear, though, that the United Methodist Church does not exercise any sort of “supervisory role” with regard to the Divinity School.
Davidson College, on the other hand, maintains a stronger, farther-reaching connection with the Presbyterian Church. In addition to its requirement that a majority of its Trustees—including its president—be active Presbyterians, 80 percent of the governing body must be active members of a Christian church. Furthermore, according to the ruling, students at Davidson are “required to take a course in religion and the College’s bylaws limit faculty and officer appointments to ‘Christian men and women’ and ‘non-Christian persons who can work with respect for the Christian tradition’[.]”
The August ruling followed the precedents set by the N.C. Supreme Court in two previous decisions, in which Campbell University and Pfeiffer University were deemed religious institutions and deprived of their police powers in 1994 and 2002, respectively. Both schools now hire local police to secure their campuses. The state’s Supreme Court is currently determining whether it will hear the Davidson case and decide if the school will also have to rely on a local sheriff for protection.
Duke’s Methodist affiliation, albeit weaker than Davidson’s, could eventually place the University in the ranks of schools who have had their legal authority diminished.
“I think it may be a little too far [off] to say that we’re worried,” Schoenfeld said of the appeals court’s ruling. “But we’re certainly paying close attention to it.”
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.