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| 09-29-2004 | Previous edition: 09-28-2004 |
        
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Printer-friendly version PSG aims to make fee legalBy Sarah KriselAssistant Campus Editor The issue of a student activity fee has gone to the U.S. Supreme Court. Twice. Aaron Schnur, president of Purdue Student Government, said in his proposal of the Purdue student activity fee to the PSG senate that the legal concerns are an important consideration. Schnur, a senior in the School of Management, said the fee committee is studying what other schools have done wrong to avoid similar problems. "We are evaluating other schools' mistakes from the past so those things won't happen here." In 1995, Ronald Rosenberger sued the University of Virginia. He sued on the basis that the publication Wide Awake: A Christian Perspective at the University of Virginia was refused funding from the university's mandatory student activity fee because of the message in the magazine. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Rosenberger. The court said that according to the First Amendment, if the university wants to promote speech, it must promote all forms equally. Since, it had funded other publications with a message prior to Wide Awake. In 2000, the Supreme Court heard another issue dealing with a student activity fee, this time at the University of Wisconsin. Scott Southwourth sued his university for violating his first amendment rights. He argued that since the school’s fee was mandatory for all students, it violated his rights by forcing students to support organizations that have opposing viewpoints. In the University of Wisconsin v. Southwourth, the court ruled in favor of the university. The court said that it is legal for the money from a fee to fund all organizations as long as the program determining how the money is distributed is viewpoint neutral. Don Mohr, attorney and lecturer in the department of communication, said the Wisconsin case did not violate the first amendment rights of the students because the students were not forced to deliver the messages they did not support. Purdue President Martin Jischke said since the University would be responsible for collecting the fee, and it would have an active role in making sure the policies would meet all constitutional University expenditure requirements. Jischke has not formed an opinion on the fee because there is not a specific proposal yet. "I have been at schools with a fee and schools without. Purdue, in my opinion, will depend on the specifics presented in the proposal: the purpose, the cost and the attitudes of the students," said Jischke. Printer-friendly version |
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