PITTSBURGH (TNS) — Natalie Kahler graduated from Grove City College in 1994. It’s where she met and later married her husband, Jason — during a ceremony in the campus chapel — and where their daughter enrolled years later.

Invested as she is in the institution, Kahler finds herself in an unexpected spot. She is a point person in a battle to convince Grove City leaders not to ban discussions of race and racism from the classroom and campus.

A recent statement from the small Christian college 75 miles north of Pittsburgh tied discussions of race to the concept of critical race theory. CRT is an academic framework typically taught in law schools but has become a political catch-all term for efforts dealing with diversity and racism in the U.S.

”We unqualifiedly reaffirm GCC’s Christ-centered mission and commitment to a free society, traditional values, and the common good. That has not changed one iota and will not change on our watch,” the college’s statement read. “Fidelity to the College’s founding principles secures GCC’s unique place as an oasis in American higher education. In particular, the Board categorically rejects Critical Race Theory and similar ‘critical’ schools of thought as antithetical to GCC’s mission and values.”

In response, a petition Kahler and some 200 others have signed in recent days says the issue is less about critical race theory, a supercharged topic politically and an often misunderstood academic theory. It is more about a more fundamental value in higher education: academic freedom.

”This is about whether or not we are going to censure speech and discussion on any issue on a college campus,” Kahler, who lives in Florida, said in an interview Thursday.

The petition adds another voice to an uncomfortable debate roiling the conservative college campus. Debates about critical race theory, and what it encompasses, have fueled K-12 protests and also spread to higher education.

The petition spells out the stakes and makes a plea.

”Please do not inhibit discussions of race and racism on campus and in the classroom,” it reads in part.

”We do not write to endorse or condemn CRT as a social science theory. In fact, in many ways, CRT has become a distraction,” it reads.

”In recent times, many topics relating to race, the history of slavery, Jim Crow laws, and so on have been artificially attached to CRT. The definition of CRT has been expanded so that it is difficult to pin it down.”

Grove City College, founded in 1876, has turned out generations of impactful graduates grounded in conservative Christian values and trained in disciplines from the humanities to science.

The CRT debate followed events on campus, including a speech during chapel in 2020. They led to a petition circulated in the fall by parents and alumni at the college with about 2,400 full-time students.

That initial petition by parents and others in the fall, dubbed “Save GCC from CRT,” referenced a chapel TED talk by Bryan Stevenson of the Equal Justice Initiative regarding mercy and sentencing reform for juveniles, as well as a 2020 address by author Jemar Tisby.

It also referred to Justin Jose, dean of multiculturalism at Grove City.

It alluded to a presentation at a residence hall assistant training session when he and his wife spoke of white privilege. Petitioners also noted that he wears an LGBT badge on campus.

”Why is this person an employee of GCC? Has anyone brought this to the attention of the administration?” the petition asked.

Jose earlier this week, reached by the Post-Gazette, declined comment.

”As biblically grounded Christians, we are not defensive about racism. Where it exists, we should repent of it. We are concerned, though, when our students are falsely convicted and unbiblically indicted simply because of their skin color,” the petition added.

Kahler studied English and communications at Grove City. She works in economic development and once served as mayor of Brooksville, a small town on Florida’s west coast.

She pointed to a distinction between the turmoil affecting her alma mater and other CRT debates within local school districts.

”We’re not talking about little kids,” she said. “We’re talking about adults.”

Critical Race Theory has become enmeshed in the rhetoric of the day, from “woke” culture to George Floyd, a Black man whose death at the hands of Minneapolis police fueled the “Black Lives Matter” movement.

Ninety-one percent of undergraduates at Grove City were white as of 2020, according to the most current data available from the U.S. Department of Education. Among other groups, 2% are Asian, 1% are Black or African American; 1% are Hispanic or Latino; 3% are of two or more races and 1% are non-resident aliens.

Faculty including Warren Throckmorton, a psychology professor, are watching the debate play out with in interest in what it means for students who come to Grove City for an education.

”This is a time when they are exposed to ideas that are maybe different from what they grew up with,” he said.

Grove City has empaneled a committee to look at mission drift that is expected to release its findings in April. Even before that, school trustees issued a statement rejecting Critical Race Theory.

Grove City President Paul McNulty said Tuesday he understands the complexity of the issue.

He said society, race and racism “can and should be taught. The issue is how it should be taught.”