MUNCIE, Ind. (AP) _ A Ball State University faculty member has been promoted after being told last year to stop teaching intelligent design in a science course.
 
Republican state Senate education chairman Dennis Kruse tells The Star Press (http://tspne.ws/1spLjU8) that university officials were “very attentive'' to religious and academic freedom concerns he and other legislators raised during a private meeting last month about the dispute.
 
Physics faculty member Eric Hedin was among 19 assistant professors promoted to associate professor last week by Ball State's Board of Trustees. Hedin faced complaints that his “Boundaries of Science'' class inappropriately taught intelligent design, which holds that the complexity found in nature must be from rational design, as by God.
 
Hedin says he's thankful the university has confirmed that he's a valued faculty member.