Word: supporter
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Supreme Court heard oral arguments Nov. 10 in a case that endangers the funding of student groups at public universities across the nation. Three conservative law students at the University of Wisconsin: Madison sued the school to recover fees they had paid to support campus student groups. They argued that the school was forcing them to pay for the activities of liberal groups whose messages they opposed. While a federal appeals court has found in their favor, the Supreme Court should reverse that decision and recognize the existence of active student groups as integral to the atmosphere and function...
Currently, the University of Wisconsin charges a mandatory fee from each student, which is channeled to student groups through a general university fund as well as through the student government. The students who sued objected to the activities of groups such as Amnesty International, the Madison AIDS Support Network and the Campus Women's Center, and they have asked for the right to withhold their support. Several right-wing law organizations, such as the Washington Legal Foundation, have submitted amicus briefs urging the Court to end the University of Wisconsin's fee system...
...ruled that the funding of student organizations does represent a public forum for the purpose of distributing funds. In other words, a public university cannot discriminate among the groups that it funds and there is no evidence that the University of Wisconsin was selectively favoring liberal causes in its support of student groups. However, that earlier decision had expressly avoided the question of whether the school can legitimately compel students to pay for the forum...
...University of Wisconsin is not donating to the Gore campaign and sending the bill to its students. The student fee is a means of promoting an open forum on campus for groups of all kinds: religious, political, artistic and social. A union is allowed to gather dues to support collective bargaining and other activities central to its purpose and many universities see the existence of a well-used forum of student debate as central to their academic mission. As Justices David H. Souter '61 and Stephen G. Breyer observed during the oral arguments, a university supporting multiple--often contradictory--messages...
...student fee that funds the council's disbursements is voluntary. If it loses the case, the University of Wisconsin is also likely to make the fee voluntary rather than create a logistical nightmare by giving students the opportunity to pick and choose which groups they would like to support...