In the aftermath of a lawsuit brought against Cal State by Students for Life, administrators announced this week that they will change a policy that discriminated against pro-life students.
According to a report by the College Fix, Cal State will lift a policy that restricted the amount of funding that a pro-life student organization was permitted to receive from the student government. The policy change will take across Cal State’s 23 campuses that are spread out throughout California.
A pro-life student group called Students for Life filed a lawsuit after it realized that two pro-choice campus organizations had received $300,000 in funding from Associated Students, Inc. By contrast, Students for Life was asked to apply for a $500 grant each semester. The members of Students for Life were also not permitted to use the grant to bring guest speakers to campus.
In January, Students for Life settled with California State University. As a result of the settlement, Cal State was forced to pay $243,000 in legal fees to the student group’s attorneys, the Alliance Defending Freedom.
Moreover, Cal State announced this week that they have revised the policy that placed a restriction on the group’s fundraising abilities. As a result of the changes, progressive activist groups will not be permitted to raise funds from the mandatory student fees.
Tyson Langhofer, director of the Alliance Defending Freedom’s Center for Academic Freedom, said that the settlement is a victory for students all around the state of California.
“Cal-State San Marcos now understands that it can’t force student citizens to pay for advocacy of views the university decides are orthodox while effectively excluding funding for competing views,” Langhofer said.
In a statement, the Alliance Defending Freedom argued that America must return its universities to its original purpose of expanding young minds through exposure to diverse and stimulating ideas.
“We embrace the notion that universities must be a marketplace of ideas, and that this is essential to the educational process as students critically examine new ideas, learning from the perspectives of others,” the ADF’s statement read.
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