Statement

Geneva College does not take a position in electoral or partisan politics and does not engage in political campaigns. We seek to maintain good working relationships with all government officials that serve our community, regardless of party affiliation. 

Therefore, no one should infer that the guest opinion column published in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette by Dr. Byron Curtis on November 2, 2024, reflects the views of Geneva College. Dr. Curtis, as professor emeritus, is a former employee who has retired from the College. 

Geneva College protects academic freedom, which pertains to academic inquiry within a faculty member’s field of study and the conduct of instruction without interference.  The College also protects the personal free speech rights for faculty members in their roles as private citizens.  

Obviously, academic freedom has limits. Academic freedom precludes professorial political advocacy in the classroom, in the ordinary conduct and events of the College, or in the name of the College. In the exercise of their Constitutional free speech rights, faculty members must clearly dissociate their personal political views from the College, which endorses no political candidate, platform, or agenda. 

The attribution identifying Dr. Curtis as a Geneva College faculty member, emeritus, exceeds these limits, associating Geneva College with the political views advocated in the essay. 

By way of clarification on the matter of abortion, the College’s doctrinal standards indicate that opposition to abortion is a matter of biblical fidelity not governmental or political policy or platform. As stated in the Testimony of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America,  

Unborn children are living creatures in the image of God. From the moment of conception to birth they are objects of God’s providence as they are being prepared by Him for the responsibilities and privileges of postnatal life. Unborn children are to be treated as human persons in all decisions and actions involving them. Deliberately induced abortion, except possibly to save the mother’s life, is murder (24.19) 

Accordingly, the College filed suit against the Federal government in May 2012 to dispute a provision in the Affordable Care Act that required employers to provide abortifacient drugs in their health care plans. Based on a Supreme Court ruling, a lower court issued a permanent injunction on July 5, 2019, that enables the College to continue to faithfully observe our biblical commitment to protect the lives of unborn children from the point of conception.