Tuesday, February 17, 2004

Should campus political organizations be funded with campus dollars 

The Minnesota Daily opines 'yes', as it relates to the debate at the University of Minnesota over funding its Campus Republicans group. The student fees commitee declared their CRs a "partisan group" and rejected funding for them. The question is whether this violates the "viewpoint-neutral funding" requirements of Southworth. As Eugene Volokh points out, though, they are not REQUIRED to fund speech. And since the student fees committee doesn't fund the University DFL either, one can hardly say they are censoring. Angry Clam agrees with this.

But the larger question is whether they SHOULD, not whether they are required. The MN Daily editorial concludes that the CRs are beneficial to the University's mission.
the fees committee does fund the Minnesota Student Association as well as various religious groups. Because part of the University�s mission is to foster a free exchange of ideas, it should not matter whether a group is partisan or political.

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