Dissection Choice Introduction
U. of Illinois Adopts Dissection-Alternatives Policy!
March 7, 2005: Virgina Commonwealth University just passed a student-choice policy that gives students with ethical or religious objections to dissection the opportunity to earn either a Bachelor of Arts or a Bachelor of Science degree without participating in academic exercises they find objectionable! Read the full story here. For more information about this important victory, you can contact Nicole Green (Assistant Director of Education, Animalearn) at (215)887-0816, or April Kung (the Virginia Commonwealth University Student who spearheaded the campaign) at (804)358-2829. Congratulations!
February 3, 2005: While we do not have a list of every class using animals, it appears that at least some classes in the timetable now indicate both whether or not a course includes dissection and whether or not alternatives are available. For example, Biology of Reproduction has alternatives available for all dissection requirements. It appears that once the emotions died down from the original controversy, professors and department heads were more willing to make some accomodations quietly!
In other news, April Kung at Virginia Commonwealth University is working on a student chocie policy at her school. We've added a link to the presentation that she delivered to her department on our Resources page.
August 18, 2004: The timetable has been updated to include whether or not a course includes dissection, but still doesn't indicate whether or not alternatives will be available as mandated by Recommendation 4 of the policy. We have also found that department heads are unwilling to have us demonstrate alternatives to them because they feel the issue is too controversial for them to even discuss them with their professors. We hope to find professors willing to take a closer look at the alternatives, and to continue support of students struggling with this issue. Also, the effect of this policy is supposed to be up for review by the senate this fall; since it hasn't been fully implemented until now I don't imagine any changes being made but we'll keep an eye on it.
December 18, 2003: The school of integrative biology (SIB) here at UIUC has responded to our question about why the policy wasn't being implemented. Apparently things like the timetable and program of study are made up far in advance, so the first ones in compliance will be in Fall 2004. They made a change to their website so that the undergraduate program page now has a page discussing dissection in SIB. Finally, when asked why a student in BIOL 104 was allowed not to dissect, but not permitted to leave and/or use alternatives, they said that since it's considered a specialty course under the policy, professors don't have to offer alternatives. While this is correct, it seems that both students and teachers would prefer having the students learn as much as possible, so we are going to get some alternatives on loan and demonstrate them to people in the SIB. It is our hope that once professors see the alternatives they will agree that they're worth bringing into the classroom.
In other news, you can see an article about our campaign in the latest issue of AV magazine (from the American Anti-Vivisection Society). It's not online yet, but you can see the magazine's web page here.
November 23, 2003: This web page was initially designed to aid Students Improving the Lives of Animals (SILA) in getting a policy passed to allow students to use alternatives to dissection at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. However, now that the policy has been passed we would like it to serve as a resource for other groups working on similar policies, and for individual students affected by this issue. We hope to continue to add content to the page; if there's something you think we're missing please send us an email. Please feel free to use and modify materials from this website in your own campaigns, and let us know what you found useful! Also, while the policy is now official, it has come to our attention that thus far it has not been implemented. We are continuing to work with the administration to address this problem; if you have an experience with dissection or dissection alternatives at UIUC please let us know.
May 5, 2003: The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Senate voted today to adopt a dissection alternatives policy, the first of its kind at a major U.S. university. The policy marks the climax of a two-year student campaign and represents a compromise between student and faculty interests.
Among the policy's provisions, general education courses that require students to engage in animal dissection must make alternatives available to all students who request them. For other courses, instructors are required to notify students of the availability of alternatives at the time of registration. The timetable is also supposed to have information on dissection and alternatives for relevant classes. Students who believe they have been unfairly denied an alternative may appeal under UIUC's "Grievance Procedures in Matters of Religious Beliefs, Observances, and Practices. Finally, the Programs of Study document and departmental web pages are supposed to be updated to include information on alternatives to dissection."
We are very grateful for the efforts of concerned students, faculty, senators, and administrators. We also thank James Cromwell, Kevin Nealon, and Linda Blair for their support.
Please write Chancellor Nancy Cantor and thank her for overseeing the creation of the first campus-wide dissection-alternatives policy at a major US university!
Nancy Cantor
Swanlund Administration Building
601 E John
Champaign, IL 61820
(217) 333-6290
ncantor@uiuc.edu