The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC Chapel Hill) Board of Trustees passed a resolution rejecting the student government’s attempt to deny funding to pro-life organizations.
“As the oldest public university in the nation, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is firmly committed to protecting freedom of expression and freedom of association on campus in order to foster an educational environment with a diversity of viewpoints,” the resolution states.
Abortion-rights protesters regroup and protest following Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in Washington, Friday, June 24, 2022. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)
“The law requires that allocation of student fees to student organizations must be accomplished with viewpoint neutrality as the operational principle in law,” the resolution adds.
The Board’s resolution specifying that student fees must be distributed to student organizations in a viewpoint-neutral manner was passed nearly three weeks after the university’s Student Body President, Taliajah Vann, tried to block executive branch funds from being directed to pro-life clubs, according to a report by Campus Reform.
The student body president’s executive order was met with backlash from pro-life activists and legal groups, who said Vann’s demand violated students’ First Amendment rights.
“The Board of Trustees reaffirms its commitment to academic freedom,” the board’s resolution states.
The resolution reportedly applies to the Undergraduate Student Government and Graduate and Professional Student Government Senates, which decide how money is spent when directing the use of student activity fees.
Conservative students and their organizations already have a tougher time on college campuses than their left-wing counterparts.
A 2020 poll revealed that a majority of conservative college students say they will self-censor their political views in order to avoid upsetting their leftist peers. By contrast, only 15 percent of Democrat respondents claimed they would censor their political beliefs due to social pressures.
Breitbart News has also previously reported frequently on what happens when conservative students do not self-censor.
In 2020, a professor at Central Michigan University told student members of Turning Point USA that she was “terrified” of them, and that she tears down TPUSA posters whenever she sees them as “an act of civil disobedience.”
In 2019, three individuals were arrested after setting the president of Tulane University’s Turning Point USA chapter’s dorm room door on fire. That same year, a field representative from the conservative organization Leadership Institute was punched in the face at UC Berkeley.
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