CCCSMJCADS
Belmont Abbeij Collese
VOLUME V, NUMBER THREE
BELMONT. NORTH CAROLINA 28012
APRIL, 1977
k 'i "i V
State Tuition Grants
Ruled Constitutional
Dudko Resigns
After Ten Years
Of Coaching
Stanley Dudko, nine-time Coach of the Year of District 26 of the
N. A.I.A., has resigned as coach of Belmont Abbey College’s soccer
team.
Dudko, whose record is 120-47-12, said he resigned “not over one
particular reason, but because of the time element being so great; I
only have so much time and so many things to do. I have to establish
priorities. Teaching Business Administration and Economics, plus
coaching soccer, consumed too much time.
“I took soccer as a 365-day a year job-not three months. Fr. (John
P.) Bradley (president of Belmont Abbey College) tried to twist my
arm to change my mind, but my decision is firm
Dudko’s resignation becomes effective at the end of this semester.
A replacement has not been found. Applicants will be considered
until June. Applications should be made to Fr. Raphael Bridge,
O. S.B., athletics moderator.
Dudko was named soccer coach of the Crusaders 10 years ago. His
teams have taken the district championship nine times, and h^ve
been runners-up in the N.A.I.A. regional tournament five times, and
received a berth at the national tournament in 1%7.
Twenty-two Abbey players have been named to the N.A.I.A. All-
South team and two have made N.A.I.A. All-American in the past 10
years. The Crusaders’ 1976 record is 14-3, and they won their district
and were runners-up in the regional tournament.
Dudko, 43, is a native of Rowno, Poland. He received an A.B.
degree from Belmont Abbey College, did graduate work at the
University of North Carolina and received his M. A. degree in
Economics from Auburn University.
He began his teaching career at Charlotte Catholic High School
and Central Piedmont Community College, and in 1963 he returned to
Belmont Abbey College, where he joined the Department of Business
and Economics. He is presently Assistant Professor in the depart
ment.
In March 1971 Abbot Edmund McCaffrey, O.S.B., then chancellor
of the college, announced that Pope Paul VI had bestowed upon
Dudko the papal knighthood of the Order of St. Gregory the Great.
This was granted in recognition for his loyal services to the church as
a Catholic layman.
A panel of three judges ruled recently in
Charlotte that tuition grants from the state of
North Carolina to students at Belmont Abbey
College and another private, church-related
college are constitutional.
The judges said state aid to B.A.C. does not
violate First Amendment separation of church
and state because the college is not “pervasively
sectarian,” or operating primarily to promote
religion.
Had the judges ruled otherwise, state aid to the
38 private colleges in North Carolina now
receiving the aid would have been discontinued.
All of the 38 are church-related.
In the case, heard December 1, 1976 before
|Qement Haynsworth, chief judge of the U. S. 4th
[Circuit Ck)urt of Appeals, and U. S. District Judges
Ijames McMillan and Woodrow Wilson Jones, the
Istate and the private colleges contended the aid
serves a secular purpose-education. The
jreasoning was that private college tuition costs
have risen to the point that state schools would be
overburdened with students if the state didn’t help
pay private tuitions.
The suit was filed by Michael Smith, a former
Pfeiffer College professor, with the support of
Americans United for Separation of Church and
State, a national organization headquartered in
Maryland. Smith contended the state aid was
unconstitutional because “it encourages students
to attend colleges where they will be influenced to
become or remain religious.” The suit challenged
the constitutionality of three state laws permitting
the disbursal of state money to private colleges.
In addition to Belmont Abbey College and
I Pfeiffer College, defendants included the state’s
[University Board of Governors and the N. C.
Education Assistance Authority, which ad
ministers the aid.
Although all 38 private colleges are church-
related, Smith did not contend that any except
Belmont Abbey College and Pfeiffer College are
pervasively sectarian.
The judges, in a unanimous, unsigned opinion,
■ruled B.A.C. and Pfeiffer, a Methodist college, are
sectarian in organization and structure, but are
not sectarian in operation. “The evidence shows
them to be liberal arts colleges functioning in the
liberal arts tradition. They are not engaged in
proselytizing (recruiting to religion) students or
anyone else.”
Judge McMillan found that B.A.C. and Pfeiffer,
“despite their many trappings and insignia of
religious orientation,” are not “pervasively
sectarian.
North Carolina provided 8.6 million in aid
covering partial tuition for about 23,000 private
college students last year. The state pays $200
each toward tuition for all North Carolina resident
students, and operates two aid programs for
financially needy private students.
The opinion states that “Belmont Abbey College
offers a broad liberal arts undergraduate
program, with curriculum requirements to insure
to each student a rather broad exposure. There
are twenty-three academic departments, with
permissible concentrations in sixteen. Theology is
not one of the sixteen departments in which a
student may seek a major.
“Each student is required to take two courses in
the Department of Theology. Three of the courses
offered in that department, however, are not
primarily concerned with the Christian religion.
;One is a comparative study of major world
religions, while two others are concerned with
ancient religions and mythology, though attention
is given to their influence upon the Old Testament
and Christianity. In 1975-76, a course in the
Islamic religion was offered and taught by an
Islamic Moslem. Moreover, the theology
requirement can be fulfilled by transfer credits
from other colleges, including public institutions.
Finally, other courses concentrating primarily or
[entirely upon Christianity were taught as
academic disciplines in which there was no ap
pearance of an attempt to persuade the student to
accept either Christian or Catholic doctrines.
“There is no requirement that students attend
religious services. The College has no rule against
Iprayer in classrooms, and on rare occasions
Imembers of the faculty have opened classes with
iprayer. The norm, however, is that religion is not
injected into the classroom, and when it is the
subject of study in the Theology Department, the
tone is that of the academician and not that of a
spreader of the Gospel.”
BAC Plans
FAA Credit
Acting upon a request from the Federal Aviation
Administration, Belmont Abbey College will
initiate a program next academic year to award
academic credit to controllers and technicians
who have completed the required FAA training
course.
“It is a program which attempts to recognize in
terms of college level credit, the professional
training received by controller personnel and
technicians of the FAA,” explained Fr. James
Solari, O.S.B., Academic Dean of the college.
The program will allow 30, one full academic
year, free-elective credits for those interested in
working actively toward an undergraduate
degree.
Fr. James sees most applicants working in the
field of business, although there is no limitation on
major choice. It will be necessary, after earning
these 30 credits, that the candidate fulfill the core
and major program requirements, including all
upper-level requirements.
The FAA training program consists of a period
of intensive study at the training center in
Oklahoma, followed by three years of in-service
training in the field. Qualification for an FAA
position, then comes after actual working ex
perience. These positions are ranked equally with
the GS-12 level on the Civil Service Register.
Mercer University in Atlanta has a similar
program, and Belmont Abbey College has several
others which allow the more mature student who
has been working the opportunity to earn an un
dergraduate degree without quitting work, or
negating that experience by beginning at the
entrance level of college freshmen.
The Life Experience Credit Program grants up
to 30 credits for life experience of different sorts.
There is a credit program for registered nurses
who have received their licenses from non-
credited programs which recognizes the learning
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