A Push Becomes A Shove
Colleges get uneasy about proselytizing
Still, experts say the label has nothing to do with radical beliefs and everything to do with behavior. Each of the estimated 3,000 cults in this country has a unique ideology, but they all share certain worrisome traits (box). Students are particularly easy prey. "They are in transition from the culture of their parents, which leaves them somewhat uncertain and anxious," explains Marc Galanter, a professor of psychiatry and the author of Cults: Faith, Healing, and Coercion. "Cults provide answers."
How to deal. In the past, schools have dealt with controversial religious groups quietly--if at all--in large part because of First Amendment concerns. "A public college campus is a forum for wide-ranging ideas, some of them quite provocative, and we have to walk a very narrow line between respecting a student's right to make a mistake, or to think differently than we do, and punishing a group for some clearly illegal behavior," says Gary Pavela, director of judicial programs and student ethical development at the University of Maryland-College Park.
Last year, the Maryland state legislature convened a hotly contested task force to study the effects of "dangerous groups" at its public institutions, partly in response to complaints from parents who say their daughter--a student at the College Park campus--went to a dorm adviser for advice and got recruited into a cult instead. Earlier this month, the State University of New York's Purchase College settled a court case surrounding a 1998 incident, in which one local ICOC member was suspended for allegedly "intimidating . . . harassing . . . and detaining" a fellow student, and the church was banned from holding services on campus; as of now, the student has been reinstated, and the group is allowed to use school facilities again.
Private universities have more leeway in determining who's on campus. Last month, Matthew Hale, a white supremacist and self-proclaimed pastor of the World Church of the Creator, visited Northwestern University in an attempt to establish a chapter. School officials don't know if they'll consent to the admittedly racist, antisemitic organization, even if Hale obtains the 15 required signatures to form a student group. "We routinely regulate who is allowed on our campus," says Alan Cubbage, vice president for university relations. "Getting people to sign up for anything, be it the World Church of the Creator or long-distance telephone service, is not central to our mission of teaching and research."
Hale's not concerned. "We already exist on campus," he says, claiming to have followers at Northwestern and a slew of other schools across the country, including Yale and the University of Montana. "The only question is whether we're going to be aboveboard, or be covert."
What to Avoid
Dangerous groups have varying beliefs but share similar traits:
Charismatic, authoritarian leaders. Requiring absolute devotion to one person, who dictates how members should think and act.
Mind control and manipulation. Using controlling methods, including physical and/or psychological isolation from family and friends.
Misleading recruitment tactics. "Love bombing," or showering prospective members with attention; the use of front names that mask group affiliation.
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