Like at most colleges, student organizations at Santa Rosa Junior College must request funding for their events and activities. Those requests go to the Inter-Club Council, a collection of student leaders who oversee extracurricular activities on campus. But unlike at most colleges, the Inter-Club Council maintains a grant application that asks students how their planned event or activity will benefit the student body. This is unconstitutional, and Southeastern Legal Foundation (SLF) is calling on the College to change it.
Read More
In a letter to the College, SLF explains that it is unconstitutional for college officials to assess speech based on its perceived value. Allowing officials to assess the value of speech is a form of viewpoint and content discrimination because there is a risk that they will insert their own views when approving or denying a funding request. The same is true for student leaders acting in an official capacity on campus. If a conservative or libertarian student organization requests funding to host a debate on a controversial issue, there is nothing to stop the Inter-Club Council from denying that request because the Council does not personally see the benefit of that speech.