Search WWW Search GoodspeedUpdate.com
MEDIA
Michigan Daily
Ann Arbor News
University Record
Michigan Radio
WCBN, WEMU

AREA BLOGS
Goodspeed Update
Arbor Blogs
Ann Arbor Is Overrated
Black at Michigan
Richard Murphy

Past the College Grounds
Sam Woll
Steven Cherry (Ypsi)
The Bunker (Ypsi)
Larry Kestenbaum
Edward Vielmetti
Chetly Zarko
Airbeagle
Andrew Vanalstyne
Neoliberal Chopping Block
Michigan MBA
Mouse Musings
Jenny Nathan
Matt Hollerbach
Bob Goodsell
Stephen Darwall

Common Sense Liberals
John Honkala: First City (Chicago)
Washington Oculus (D.C.)
Dave Enders (Baghdad)
Jim Secreto (China)
Josh Wickerham (China)
Ben King (Atlanta)
Juan Cole (Mideast)


MORE MEDIA
Ann Arbor Indymedia
Moment
Consider
Michigan Review
Mich Magazine
Every Three Weekly
BusinessDirect Weekly

Detroit Free Press
Metrotimes
Detroit News
Crain's Detroit
Michigan Indymedia
Michigan Chronicle
Michigan Citizen
Local 4 - WDIV
DetNow 7 - WXYZ

MLIVE.COM
MI AP Wire - Freep
MI AP Wire - MLive

New York Times
Washington Post
Los Angeles Times
Chicago Tribune
Omaha World-Herald
Top U.S. Newspapers
MSNBC.com

U-M NEWS
Admin News
LSA News
ITCS News
MGoBlue.com
UMHS News
Engineering News

Michigan Today Mag
LSA Mag

CAMPUS LABOR
Borders Readers United
Graduate Employees' Organization
Lecturer's Employee Organization
American Association of University Profs.
Students Organizing for Labor and Economic Equality

WORLD
Reuters
Al Jazeera English
Times of India
The Age (AU)

BBC News
The Guardian (UK)
Times of London
The Independent (UK)

MORE BLOGS
Tom Tomorrow
Jim Hightower
Nathan Newman
Paul Schmelzer
Beyond Brilliance
Ted Rall
Aaron Hawkins
Where is Raed? (Baghdad)
Matt Drudge
Jim Romenesko

Michigan Blogs
Detroit Blog

BEAT BUSH IN '04
Wesley Clark
Howard Dean
John Edwards
Dick Gephardt
John Kerry
Dennis Kucinich
Joe Lieberman
Ralph Nader
Al Sharpton

AROUND THE WEB
ZNet
ACLU, ACLU-MI
Open Secrets
The Onion
Memory Hole
Cryptome
Snopes
WhiteHouse.org
Porto Alegre
UN
Labor Start
Arts and Letters
UnderReported.com

ARCHIVES
April04
March04
February04
January04
December03
November03
October03
September03
August03
July03
June03
May03
April03
March03
February03 (Feb. 18-22)
January03
December02
November02
October02
September02
August02
July02
June02
May02
April02
March02
February02
January02
December01
November01
Sept.-Oct01

ADVERTISEMENTS


NEWS

Thursday, February 12, 2004

Former Michigan Review writer and editor and current employee of the Collegiate Network James Justin Wilson has written me a "letter to the editor" arguing that the supreme court's Southworth case means everything student governments do must be "viewpoint neutral." I have argued that the case, which only applies to student group funding, doesn't prohibit a student government from spending money that reflect political opinions. If you accept Wilson's logic, MSA would have to dissolve the Environmental Issues Commission, the LBGT Affairs Commission, the Student Rights Commission, (they have a viewpoint!) as well as not lobby state government or administrators to keep tuition low. MSA wouldn't be able to co-sponsor earth day events on the "coming out week" events held each year, lobby the administration on The Code, or actually do anything except for allocate funding. If Mr. Wilson thinks his legal interpretation is correct, he should bring a lawsuit against the student government of nearly all the public universities in the country.

"Yesterday's MSA allocation of more than $5,000 for students to travel to a choice event was irresponsible for two independent reasons.

First, never in MSA's recent history has it spent so much money on so few students for such a partisan purpose. For the students traveling to the event, it's nearly a 1000% return on their investment (mandatory student fees). If for no other reason than fiduciary responsibility, MSA was wrong to spend so much on so few. Furthermore, this criticism is completely
independent of my political views. I'd be just as angry if MSA gave YAF $5,000 for a lecture that only 200 people could attend.

Second, MSA is not an elected representative body, it is a 501c3 nonprofit organization whose board of directors is elected by its members (the student body) and whose funding is obtained through a government grant (a tax levied on tuition to a state institution). Like any other 501c3 that receives state money, it cannot discriminate for a number of factors. But discrimination is not the lynch pin to the funding fiasco.

Political speech, particularly in the academy, is held to the highest level of judicial scrutiny. Your interpretation of the pertinent cases is inaccurate and not based whether the money goes to a student group or not. To begin with, the controlling decision in this instance is Wisconsin v. Southworth, not Fry. In that decision the Supreme Court in a 9-0 decision held that student governments at state schools must, like any other institution that receives state funding, preserve a constitutes--in this case a student's--freedom of speech. In that view, MSA is a body charge with fostering a discourse of ideas on campus not the dominant viewpoint.

According to the University's own Fundamental Tenants of Membership in the University Community, "Because the search for knowledge is our most fundamental purpose, the University has an especially strong commitment to preserve and protect freedom of thought and expression. Reasoned dissent plays a vital role in the search for truth; and academic freedom, including, the right to express unpopular views. is a cherished tradition of universities everywhere. All members of the University have the right to express their own views and hear the views of others expressed, but they must also take responsibility for according the same rights to others."

Considering that and the ruling in Southworth, MSA has a responsibility to preserve the speech of all students at Michigan, even those who posses what it deems to be an "unpopular views." This is to say that your "analysis" of Fry, which is not the controlling ruling in this instance, is wrong to assume that the tenant of viewpoint neutrality only applies to student groups. Such an argument is found nowhere within the ruling, nor in the resulting jurisprudence.

Consider a hypothetical. Imagine if a city government allowed the Republican party to hold a convention at the town's central park, but told the Democratic party to go elsewhere. In this case, the city is not acting in a viewpoint neutral way, and as such, stifling the DNC's ability to speak. The same would be true if the city gave unequal funding to electoral candidates.

Now, consider that within the context of the March for Women. Here is a situation where MSA is paying for students to go to a pro-choice event, but as you explain, it should send any to a pro-life event. This is equivalent to sending students, be they Democrats of Republicans, to the Democratic National Convention, but refusing to send any to the RNC.

As the Supreme court found in the seminal case Buckley v. Velao, money is one of the most fundamental forms of speech (think: "money talks"). More importantly, freedom of speech implies the necessity of being heard. In this case, Michigan is favoring one viewpoint by giving money to students to attend a rally (which is, in itself, a form of political speech).

To bring this full circle, what MSA did last night was favor one viewpoint over another. But as an organization that accepts state money and as a member of the University community, MSA cannot legally fund such a non-neutral event. ...

More information can be found at: http://www.thefireguides.org/guides/student-fees.php"


Posted by Rob at 10:45 AM
WHAT'S HOT

Inside the Daily
U-M Earnings
Political Giving
Michigamua
BAMN
MSA
My Course

Ann Arbor Cool Cities Task Force
Our Voices Count
Anti War Action!


UMICH
Google
Daily Jolt
U-M Directory
MIRLYN
Lexis-Nexus

mail.umich.edu
ITCS Account Usage
MPrint
IFS Space

Recent Crime
Campus Information

Wolverine Access
Coursetools
(CTNG)
LSA Courseguide
Advice Online
Rate My Professor
ITCS Status (CAEN)

Construction Info
Sculptures Info
Student Policies

EVENTS

(Continue list)

Ticket Master Events: Ark, Blind Pig, Hill Auditorium, Michigan Theatre, Power Center Also see: UMS events, and Current's Lectures, Readings, and Forums

Movie Times
MUTO Events
UM Campus Events
CURRENT's Calendar Ann Arbor Observer
MChalk.com

ONSITE
Borders Strike
Campus Shame
Planada
City Council Elections (Voting)
NAKED MILE
HASH BASH
CRIME ALERTS
BOOKS
CRITICAL FILES
PERSONAL PAGE
CAMPUS TOURS
9.11.01
GU MAINE
MICHIGAN DAILY
SURVEILLANCE
NETPD
PALESTINE CONF.
HADDAD
GANNETT PROGRAM
HOROWITZ
DAILY BOYCOTT

TEXTBOOKS
DogEars.com
Online Student Marketplace
Student Book Exchange
Cordx.com
Half.com
Shaman Drum
Union Bookstore
Michigan Book + Supply
Ulrich's

DORMS
Dining Hall Menus
TV!
Telephone
FIXIT Request

JOBS
U-M Jobs
U-M Student Employment
Career Center

A2 "PLANNING"
City Planning Dept.
Peter Allen
New Course
Ecology Center

STATEWIDE:
MI Land Use Leadership Council
MI Land Use Institute

Ann Arbor
Detroit/A2 Craigslist
A2 Local Market
MLive Town Talk
Local Sites Via GeoUrl
Ann Arbor District Library
City Government

STUDENT POLITICS

Student Orgs
MSA
RHA
LSASG
EQGA
UMEC

ACLU
ADC
AWA!
Dems
CR's
GEO
Greens
PIRGM
SOLE
SSAA
SFC
Students Allied
SFL
Zionists


NEWS ALERTS
<1 email per week
SITE INFO

Rob@ Goodspeedupdate.com

Atom XML Feed

AIM: RobGoodsp

Policies

PAY/DONATE: Paypal or Amazon

Technorati Profile

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?