Investigation of professor’s evolution policy ended

LUBBOCK, Texas —The Justice Department has ended its investigation of a complaint against a Texas Tech University biology professor after he stopped requiring that students believe in evolution to receive a letter of recommendation.

The department said April 22 that it dropped its probe after professor Michael Dini eliminated the evolution belief requirement in his recommendation policy. He replaced it with a requirement that students have the ability to explain the theory of evolution, the Associated Press reported.

Micah Spradling, a student at the university in Lubbock, Texas, filed the complaint, accusing Dini of refusing to write letters of recommendation based on religious beliefs of his students. Spradling said as a creationist he couldn’t state a belief in human evolution to receive a recommendation.

The Liberty Legal Institute, a religious freedom group, joined in filing the complaint, calling Dini’s policy “open religious bigotry.”

Dini’s previous policy on his Web page told students desiring a recommendation to be able to answer a question about their views on the origin of the human species.