Students speak up over suit

On the eve of the announcement of this year’s summer reading selection, two students broke their 2 1/2-year silence over a lawsuit that brought them — and the University — national attention.

Daniel Grinder, a member of The Daily Tar Heel staff, revealed Tuesday that he was one of the three anonymous students who filed the suit after the University asked all incoming freshmen to read Michael Sells’ “Approaching the Qur’an: The Early Revelations.” The case was dismissed in September by a U.S. District Court judge.

Though the third plaintiff chose to remain anonymous, she issued her first statement Tuesday concerning the case.

Kris Wampler, a member of Student Congress who interns with The John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy, a conservative think tank, was the first student plaintiff to connect his name to the suit. He did so in a Nov. 20, 2004, article in The Chapel Hill Herald.

Grinder said he filed the suit because he thought the selection violated the constitutional separation between government and religion.

“I definitely felt it violated the separation of church and state,” Grinder said. “I felt it was necessary to stand up to the University at that point because it seemed they were forcing something on incoming freshmen.”

The female student who decided to retain her anonymity was referred to as Jane Doe by Joe Glover, president of the Family Policy Network, which filed the suit in July 2002.

“I didn’t get involved for any notoriety or attention. I was curious to see how the law approaches the use of a religious text in a public University,” the student said in the statement released by Glover on Tuesday.

Grinder said that he recently changed his mind about retaining anonymity.

“I was worried about possible consequences or repercussions,” he said. “(Now) I don’t care if my name is known. It’s kind of a nonissue.”

After almost three years, he said that the lawsuit rarely crosses his mind but that he has seen both positive and negative effects from the suit.

“I do think that the University is thinking about their decisions before they act on them,” he said. “I think it has affected how it made the University more open to student input.”

Grinder added that he thought he was standing up for what he believed was right.

“I believe my actions were in line with the ideals that the University upholds,” he said. “I would do it again, and I would have made my name public from the beginning.

“I think it would have made more of a statement if three named students had filed suit against the University.”

Members of the summer reading program selection committee will hold another meeting at 8 a.m. today to designate a book for first-year students next fall.

The committee has pared down the list to three: “Blood Done Sign My Name: A True Story,” by Timothy B. Tyson, “Mountains Beyond Mountains” by Tracy Kidder and “Life of Pi” by Yann Martel.

Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.