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BROWSE THE
IVORY TOWER
ARCHIVE

-----The end of student activity groups?
---Right-wing Christian student groups are using the
------------courts to attack the legality of student fees --
--------and thereby changing the free speech debate on campus.

BY KENNETH RAPOZA | "Christians have a choice when confronted with attempts to silence their voices and limit their cultural influence: Saddle up and fight or lay down and surrender. ADF has chosen to fight to level the playing field. I'm convinced that if our ideas and practices are accorded equal protection under law, we will win our part of the culture war because Scripture promises that evil will never ultimately defeat the gospel or God's people. But it won't happen overnight. We must dig in for the long term, build on every victory we can -- no matter how small -- and never, ever, give up."
-- From "A Vision for America's Future" by Alan Sears, president of the Alliance Defense Fund.

Last fall, five Christian student groups at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, sued their school. They say that the approximately $480 per semester they are required to give to the student fee system goes to political and ideological groups they oppose. While these conservative student groups maintain that they're only defending their constitutional rights, critics argue that these groups are challenging the very principles of democracy.

"There are no specific groups that we're objecting to," says Russ Johnson, a senior at Miami and the president of one of the suing groups, For the Love of God. His voice cracks like he knows he shouldn't be divulging too much information before his case goes to court. "The heart of the complaint is that students should have the right not to support groups they disagree with. If citizens had to give tax dollars to the Christian Coalition ... it would be wrong."

Looking over the list of the 120 student activities that received the $350,000 in Miami's activity fund, it is hard to find a forum that groups like Johnson's might ideologically oppose. There's the Council on Family Relations, which received $1,290; the International Club, which got $693; Project Fight AIDS didn't get a dime last semester, but Sista II Sista, a black women's group open to all students, got $1,413. The rest of the activities relate to sports, health, academics and student government's operational needs. For the Love of God received money, too. Only it received its cash from a separate fund called the Marketplace of Ideas, which was created by university administrators to designate a portion of student fees to religious groups.

Randy Blankenship, the attorney representing the students against Miami, argues that the case disputes the two-tiered system, not the ideology of any specific groups. On one hand, the general student activity pot is large, while the Marketplace of Ideas is a little under $10,000. Moreover, religious groups are restricted to Marketplace funds, while all other activities can take from both pots. "This is a state school and these are state-mandated fees. Under the First Amendment, the government cannot discriminate under the basis of the viewpoint expressed. So we see this as viewpoint discrimination," Blankenship said.

None of this would be happening if it weren't for a conservative Arizona group called the Alliance Defense Fund. It sent a mass mailing of 45,000 brochures called the "Defunding the Left Action Pak" to students nationwide aimed at attracting interest in the student fee legal debates. The brochure takes potential plaintiffs through a step-by-step procedure on how to sue their school system. Unlike Blankenship, the ADF claims an ideological basis for the fight: "This effort can literally eliminate millions of dollars from those who oppose biblical values, religious freedom and the spread of the gospel," its literature says. ADF has paid for three lawsuits against the student fee system, of which Miami is the third. ADF's annual budget is $5 million -- which comes from private donors as well as a number of conservative groups such as Focus on the Family, Christian Financial concepts and American Family Foundation.

N E X T_ P A G E .|. Equality for Jesus on campus