Atlantic Cape Community College Reverses Policy to Allow Christian Club to Receive Funds
“The revised policy, adopted Feb. 25, states that all official student organizations may request funding for activities through the Student Government Association.”
It’s great to see a college do the right thing once in a while, even if it’s because lawyers got involved.
The College Fix reports:
NJ college revises policy after it banned funds to Christian Club
Atlantic Cape Community College recently changed a student club policy that banned funding for religious and political groups after a legal organization called it a violation of students’ First Amendment rights.
The New Jersey public college’s Board of Trustees voted to revise the policy last week, removing the language that prohibited funding for “religious and political” student groups on campus, according to the college website.
The revised policy, adopted Feb. 25, states that all official student organizations may request funding for activities through the Student Government Association.
It also specifies how “religious or political organizations” may use the SGA funds, including for “[e]ducational programs, lectures, panels, or discussions,” guest speakers, and events that are “nonpartisan, educational in nature, and approved in advance pursuant to College and SGA procedures.”
Additionally, the policy outlines what student groups may not use funding for: “[r]eligious worship, devotional exercises, or religious services,” “[p]olitical campaign activities,” and any activities that “exclude participation based on a protected class.”
Previously, the policy stated: “Religious and political groups have the right to organize and be recognized by the SGA. They will have the right to use the name of Atlantic Cape and its facilities but will not receive funds to run their clubs.”
A February letter from the conservative legal organization Alliance Defending Freedom on behalf of the college’s Christian Club prompted the change. An ADF spokesperson declined to comment Thursday when asked about the revised policy.
Prior to the change, ADF Legal Council Matthew Ray told The College Fix that Atlantic Cape “denied the Christian Club funding simply because it is Christian.”
Ray told The Fix that the college’s “disfavored treatment” of the club constitutes violations of students’ First Amendment rights.
The Atlantic Cape Christian Club exists to “empower disciples to share the love of Jesus Christ, to encourage all people to form a relationship with God, and to connect with one another” through studying the Bible, according to the its website.
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begrudged leftists are only going to get more angrier and do things even more wicked than before