In the United States few locations place as much importance on religion as Utah. However, the state's largest university lacks a religious studies program, which baffles U Hebrew Professor Harris Lenowitz.
"Why, of all places in the universe, are we not doing religious studies here?" he asked.
That is a question Humanities Dean Robert Newman wants to answer with a patched together religious studies minor utilizing approximately 45 classes involving elements of spirituality and dogma.
"Religion is a fundamental aspect of our culture, our society and our history. It certainly strikes me that religious studies in the framework of society, history and social attitudes is an important area of study," Newman said.
Newman, who is in his first year as dean, asked History Professor Colleen McDannell to create a minor. But with little administrative support and a dwindling group of educators interested in religious issues, McDannell said, "my heart is not in it."
"Basically what Dean Newman wants is something for nothing," said McDannell, who holds the Sterling McMurrin Chair in Religious History.
McDannell has lead the fight for a religious studies program of some kind since she started teaching the history of Christianity at the U in 1989.
Early attempts to create a major were squashed by administrators worried about the financial aspects, she said.
It is those same financial aspects that make it nearly impossible to create a quality minor in religious studies.
"People think religion is a hobby and not an academic field. The study of religion is not a hobby," said McDannell, who holds a doctorate in religious studies from Temple University. "Even with a minor you have to cover your bases and at this university you can't cover your basis."
She says the U has no educators qualified to teach Hinduism or Buddhism. The professors who could teach Islam spend almost all of their time teaching the Arabic language and Lenowitz is the only Hebrew professor on campus. The College of Humanities decided not to hire a second Hebrew professor due to budget cuts.
If the U wants a religious studies program, McDannell is convinced that administrators like Newman must free up resources to pay new professors trained specifically in religious studies.
"Would you ask [someone] who's training is in chemistry to teach biology?" she asks.
The U is a department-based institution, where each separate entity hires its own instructors. Newman wants the religious studies minor to be interdisciplinary, utilizing the expertise of the history and philosophy departments as well as Middle East studies.
But McDannell said this creates challenges because when professors well versed in religion leave, these departments have no incentive to replace them with professors who have similar interests.
McDannell's level of frustration at an institution that shows little interest in her field of study has her thinking about switching jobs.
"If something came my way, I would go. I am looking around," she said about other job prospects.
McDannell could be the next professor interested in religion to leave the U, however, if she remains she will try to create the minor.
"If I'm still here next year, I might try to put together a list of courses," she said.
Lenowitz disagrees with McDannell about the possibility of an interdisciplinary minor.
"I don't think we are necessarily short on people," he said.
But without additional resources or a reprieve from established teaching roles, Lenowitz wonders how much energy these people can devote to a new religious studies minor.
He said the real obstacle comes from administrations afraid of upsetting lawmakers.
"The Legislature is vastly LDS and pretty strongly anti intellectual. The idea of a bunch of intellectuals studying without necessarily a devotion to the LDS theology is kind of a scary thing for those boys," he said.
Neither Lenowitz nor McDannell said the religious studies minor would focus on The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
While she believes it should be included in the minor, McDannell is more concerned about getting the major Asian religions represented along with Christian faiths.
McDannell said administrators use the LDS issue as an excuse.
"I think those ideological questions could always be dealt with," she said. "Someone trained in religious studies is not going to let a classroom situation get out of hand."
Some lawmakers and residents of Utah have the impression that the U is anti Mormon for a variety of reasons, possibly due to the two-year-old lawsuit by former theater student Christina Axson-Flynn. She said theater professors violated her religious rights by not allowing her to change swear words in an in-class play.
"There are just so many obstacles—money, staff, low pay and this crazy Mormon political stuff," McDannell said.
Fred Esplin, vice president for university relations, said any proposed religious studies minor would go through the routine process, needing the approval of the Academic Senate, the Board of Trustees and the state Board of Regents before being implemented.
Those are not easy hurdles to jump this year. Esplin acknowledges that the dismal financial situation the U finds itself in will hamper the creation of many new programs.
But McDannell knows how the U works. She also knows if administrators set their minds to it, they can create a quality religious studies minor.
"When the university wants something done, it will get it done," she said.
