Students Claim U. Minnesota is Unfairly Allocating Funds to Left Wing Groups
“policies, handbooks, and practices [that] violate the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution”
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These students are challenging the status quo, and who can blame them?
The College Fix reports:
University of Minnesota unconstitutionally showers student money on left-wing groups: lawsuit
A student group and two students are challenging the University of Minnesota’s process for distributing mandatory student fees and the absence of “written standards” and an “appeal process” for determining which student organizations receive preferential treatment.
In a federal lawsuit, Viewpoint Neutrality Now!, Evan Smith and Isaac Smith “seek a declaration, injunction, and judgment” against the taxpayer-funded institution for “policies, handbooks, and practices [that] violate the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution.”
But the administration claims that the students are seeking a “balance” that goes beyond its constitutional obligations.
The university gives preferential treatment to nine cultural organizations in its distribution of student fees, granting them permanent “free student lounge space” that is centrally located on campus, according to the suit.
Those organizations are the Black Student Union, La Raza Student Cultural Center, Disabled Student Cultural Center, Feminist Student Activist Collective, Queer Student Cultural Center, Asian-American Student Union, Minnesota International Student Association, American Indian Student Cultural Center and Al-Madinah Cultural Center.
The plaintiffs also accuse the university of unfairness in the funding of media groups such as Minnesota Daily and Radio K Media.
“The University of Minnesota has created a student-services-fee-funded shrine on the second floor of Coffman Memorial Union to worship the great god of political correctness,” their lawyer Erick Kaardal told the Star Tribune.
“In order to do so, the university trashes the First Amendment,” he continued. “The public expects the university to take care of and educate its students, not to abuse their student services fees.”
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Comments
As long as I been involved with universities and colleges, money from mandatory fees has been heavily weighed toward subsidizing left-wing groups. Such fees should be limited to programs open to all students–such as medical care and athletic facilities. And I would include a ban against student fee funding of public concert programs since no more than a handful of students take advantage of the reduced admission charges supposedly in return for the student fee money.
As colleges will be short on funds these fees will disappear at some point. The days of unrestricted incewases are gone.
Student loans should be underwritten by colleges and not taxpayers.