Our View - Tuesday

MAN FIRED FOR GETTING DIVORCE
Professor loses job over marriage breakup

Today, divorced couples equal married couples in numbers. So imagine if divorce were a fireable offense.

It is, at Wheaton College. Popular English Professor Kent Gramm was fired recently, after 20 years at the school, because he and his wife divorced.

Students have circulated a petition in support of Gramm, and debate rages on the Internet. Student Body President Tim George told the Chicago Tribune that Gramm's firing would be a huge loss to the college.

It turns out, Gramm's firing for getting divorced isn't the first at Wheaton College. The religious institution considers divorce a sin, and it retains divorced employees only if they prove that circumstances of the divorce didn't violate biblical standards.

As for Gramm, he has been the perfect gentleman. He has been given every opportunity to defend his divorce and fight for his job. He has declined, however, saying he does not wish to explain his personal life to an employer and he has no interest in violating the privacy of his ex-wife.

Gramm said that students at the college face the same dismal marital statistics as other Americans, and a great percentage of them will someday be divorced. He's probably correct, of course, which bodes poorly for society.

Divorce hurts, particularly when children are involved. Additional collateral damage of a divorce is easy to see. Friends are torn between divided couples. A study last year by renowned scientist Jianguo Liu of Michigan State University proved that divorce ravages the environment for obvious reasons. One household becomes two. Children are driven back and forth for shared custody and visitations. The study found that in the United States alone, divorce caused the use of an additional 2,373.45 billion liters of water and an additional 734 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity. Divorced households spend 46 percent more on electricity and 56 percent more on water than intact families.

Clearly, divorce isn't a benign and costless decision. It's a problem that an environmentally conscious, socially conscious, kidfriendly society should desire to solve. Aside from religious convictions, it's clear to understand why an employer might consider divorce a menace to avoid.

Does this mean more employers should fire employees for getting divorced? No. But it does mean one can easily defend the lack of tolerance Wheaton College has for divorce.

Does Wheaton have a right to do this? Absolutely. Even Gramm supports his former employer's right to fire him. The "no divorce" rule was understood when he took the job. His work with Wheaton represented nothing other than a voluntary relationship between two private parties.

Though society can ill afford for most employers to fire employees who get divorced, the plight of Gramm should promote discussion about the need for society to reduce the epidemic-like trend of divorce. It would be best for children, society and Mother Earth to reverse the tide.

DIAMONDS IN THE ROUGH

The late cable TV pioneer Bill Daniels made a fortune that he knew could make the world a better place. He used much of his money to endow the Daniels Fund, a Denverbased nonprofit that mostly works to provide prime educational opportunities for underprivileged children and young adults who might otherwise go undiscovered.

This month, the fund has chosen a record 25 students from Colorado Springs area high schools to receive funding to attend the colleges and universities they choose. They're among 268 Daniels scholars this year from Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. Each teenager has shown strong character and a determination to succeed in life.

Daniels, who died in 2000, wanted his money to help students he referred to as "diamonds in the rough." By that, he meant students of promise with financial needs and academic performances that may not reflect their potential. He wanted to invest in kids strong in character, full of personality and willing to give to others.

Finding these rare and valuable individuals is no easy task. Fund managers seek information from agencies that work with youth and people working to prepare students for college. Nominees are put through extensive interview and selection processes in their hometowns. Those selected are required to obtain financial aid in a variety of forms, such as Pell grants and family assistance. Then the Daniels Fund picks up the balance in the cost of tuition, fees, room, board, books, supplies and various miscellaneous expenses.

Before and after his death, Daniels provided the example of what will make education in the United States the best in the world someday. He showed how business prosperity can work toward the betterment of society, in perpetuity. Money used in such a manner only makes for a better, more prosperous world. Business, after all, thrives with an ever-more-enlightened work force capable of innovation. That's because no resource on Earth has value until the human mind configures a use for it. Intellect is the seed of all success.

Daniels set an ingenious example of educational funding the business community should follow in droves. By funding the educations of 25 "diamonds in the rough," the Daniels Fund has gifted Colorado Springs. It has invested in our future leaders, some of whom will use their educated minds to create wealth, jobs and prosperity for all.