Protecting Fundamental Rights – An Affirmative Duty
As state officials, public university administrators have an affirmative duty to protect the fundamental rights of all of their students, not just those within the ideological mainstream on campus. In particular, administrators should safeguard the following freedoms:
- Freedom of Speech - Speech-related policies, such as anti-harassment codes, Internet usage policies, and literature distribution standards, should be clearly written to preclude the possibility of viewpoint discrimination and to define standards precisely. The vast majority of speech codes are struck down because they sweep too broadly and prohibit speech the Constitution protects. Further, the university should resist the urge to contain free speech narrowly within small “zones.” Cases have consistently held that universities are uniquely the “marketplace of ideas” and should be generally open to student expression.
- Freedom of Association - Christian student groups should be permitted to select their leaders and members according faith-based standards. Federal law does not compel universities to impose expansive nondiscrimination policies on religious student groups (or any other private student group). Most courts that have examined the issue have concluded that Christian student groups in fact have a right of free association and can limit membership and/or leadership to those students who share a common faith.
- Freedom to Exercise Religious Belief -Public universities generally cannot force students to take part in thought-reform programs that violate their religious convictions. Students are increasingly challenging compelled participation in programs and advocacy of views that run contrary to their beliefs. For example, a student at Missouri State University was required to write a letter to the state legislature expressing support for adoption to same-sex partners. She refused, was brought up on academic charges, and was threatened with having her degree withheld unless she agreed to change her “values.” At Eastern Michigan University, a counseling student was expelled because she refused to affirm homosexual behavior. At these universities, students were not even permitted to hold politically incorrect beliefs. These kinds of cases are relatively new on campus, but they are occurring with increasing frequency.
- Equal Access -On public university and college campuses, Christian clubs are often denied the same access and resources that are made available to other groups. The most common form of discrimination is in dispensing student activity fees. At schools like the University of Virginia, University of Wisconsin, and Wayne State University, administrators have forced Christian students to pay hundreds of dollars into activity fee funds and then refused to give Christian students the same access to those funds as secular students in secular groups. Students have repeatedly—and successfully—challenged this discrimination, and the Supreme Court has twice held that student activity fees must be dispensed on a viewpoint neutral basis.
- Equality of Opportunity - All public university students, faculty, and staff should have the same chance to succeed, to be hired, and to be promoted as their peers. Christian and conservative professors are increasingly challenging pretextual hiring and promotion denials. Universities should ensure that their standards of teaching and scholarship are applied in an even-handed way, with ideological favorites and ideological dissenters evaluated on a level playing field.
