administrators are worried aboutnmaintaining a “critical mass” of Jesuitsnnecessary to maintain the institution’snidentity. Marquette in Wisconsin isnengaged in a similar court battle involvingnits education department.nTexas is the only state in the Unionnthat still permits church-supportednBible chairs at its universities, butnTexas Attorney General James Mattoxnis out to change that. Last SeptembernMattox advised North Texas State thatnits plan to add church-sponsored religionninstructors to the faculty was unconstitutional.nCritics of existing Biblenchairs were not slow to take the hintnand began challenging existing programs.nFrom the way in which academicnbureaucrats are jumping on thenMattox bandwagon, it is pretty clearnthat religious education in any formnwill soon disappear from state universitiesnin Texas. They’re not “academicallynrespectable,” sniffed the assistantnto the state Commissioner of HighernEducation. (We wonder if his degree,nprobably “education,” is academicallynrespectable.) Texas education is so respectablenthat its state Teachers Associationnunsuccessfully petitioned a judgento forbid competency testing. Myngoodness, they know they’re competentn(so does the assistant commissioner,nwe’ll bet). Besides, competency isnjust a code word for religion: over innSouth Carolina, graduates of the FundamentalistnBob Jones score muchnhigher on the NTE than ed. majorsnfrom any state university. Religiousnteachers can at least read the Bible.nTexas is a free country, and thenvoters will have a chance to get rid ofnMattox next election—well, maybe.nA coalition of critics have organizednthe People’s Political Action Committeento defeat him, but the most likelyncandidate. State Senator J. E. “Buster”nBrown, has been declared ineligible bynthe state court of appeals. Mattox,nobviously fond of volunteering unsolicitednadvice, was the first legal mindnto suggest Brown was ineligible becausenhe voted on a pay raise for statenofficials. The attorney general’s pressnsecretary described the People’s PAC asna “radical, right-wing fringe group thatndoesn’t represent the vast majority ofnTexans.” Maybe so, but if they’re all sonfired up about majority rule, Texasnlegal bureaucrats are working overtimento make sure it doesn’t apply either tonschools or the attorney general’s race.nDoes anyone, apart from the incompetentnteachers lobby, oppose competencyntesting? Do a majority of Texansnactually like paying taxes so much thatnthey object to a couple of free Biblenchairs? Rendering unto Caesar is angreat idea so long as his first name isn’tnCaligula or Gallienus.nThe 1985-86 freshman class is thenmost conservative group of college studentsnin years, according to the latestnsurvey published by the AmericannCouncil on Education and the Universitynof California at Los Angeles.nAmong the new college studentsnsurveyed—almost 200,000—nearlyn21 percent now call themselves “conservative”nor “far right,” a new high innthe 20-year history of the survey. Yetnexamination of student attitudes onnkey social and political issues revealsnthat this upsurge in student conservatismnmay be more apparent than real.nAlmost three-quarters of those surveyednfeel that the rich should paynmore taxes, and two-thirds want annational health-care plan. Over halfnapproved of forced busing, and almostnhalf believed that couples should liventogether before marriage. Over 90 percentnwant job equality for women, andnslightly more than half approve of legalnBOOKS IN BRIEFnabortion. Only one issue—the legalizationnof marijuana—showed any discerniblenconservative shift, with supportnfor legalization falling to onlynone-fifth of those surveyed. Even allowingnfor an apparent skewing of thensurvey questions (why no questions onnschool vouchers, for instance, or onnraising the personal tax exemption?),nthis hardly looks like high tide fornundergraduate conservatism.nKenneth C. Green, one of the authorsnof the survey report, noted thendisparity between the apparent climbnin “conservatism” and the liberal attitudesnon specific issues: “It may be thatnthe term liberal has fallen a littie bit innesteem. . . . There is a nationalnmovement of certain political issues tonthe mainstream. What at one time wasnliberal now becomes mainstream.”nDoes this also mean that, havingntriumphed on almost every social andnpolitical issue on campus, liberalismnhas at last added the label “conservative”nto its catalog of trophies? Therenmay be a simpler explanation. In thenpast, even entering freshmen knewnbetter than to describe sexual anarchynand big government as “conservative”nor even “middle-of-the-road.” Thesendays, they are lucky to be able to spellnconservative, much less know what itnmeans. Another victory for governmentneducation. ccnTax Revolt: The Battle for the Constitution by Martin A. Larson, Greenwich, CT:nDevin-Adair, $16.95. A spirited attack on the IRS and a chronicle of the defiant (if foolhardy)nsouls who would rather throw out the 1040 Form than the Constitution.nThe Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers, Volume III,nSeptember 1920-August 1921, edited by Robert A. Hill, Berkeley, CA: University ofnCalifornia Press, $38.50. Nearly 800 pages of letters and documents—filled with details ofnfactional disputes, petty ambition, and frustrated intrigue—covering one year in the life of anflamboyant 20th-century black leader who preached “racial purity,” black capitalism, and thenrepatriation of blacks to Africa.nLay Bare the Heart: An Autobiography of the Civil Rights Movementhy James Farmer, NewnYork: Arbor House, $16.95. An associate of Martin Luther King and Ralph Abernathy retellsnthe story of the Freedom Rides and the Civil Rights Movement. Farmer was shrewd enough tonargue against an “unconditional Black commitment” to the Democratic Party. Still anmaverick, he is one of the few national black leaders to support Jesse Jackson.nArresting Abortion: Practical Ways to Save Unborn Children, The Rutherford InstitutenReport, Volume 4, edited by John W. Whitehead, Westchester, IL: Crossway Books, $5.95.nEight contributors ponder ways to stop the slaughter of the unborn, with helpful suggestionsnon picketing, counseling, letter-writing.nUnmasking the New Age by Douglas R. Groothuis, Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press,n$6.95. A theological and philosophical critique of a potent and anti-Christian new synthesisnof quantum physics. Buddhism, and popular psychology.nnnMAY 198617n