Table of Contents
Stanford Covers Security Fee, But Viewpoint Discrimination Remains
Yesterday, FIREupdated supporters with our letter to Stanford University and accompanying press release. We called on Stanford to eliminate the more than $5,600 in unjust security fees it had levied on the Stanford Anscombe Society (SAS) for an upcoming conference on marriage and family issues. We also called on Stanford鈥檚 student government to reject and reverse its clear viewpoint discrimination against the student group in refusing its funding requests. Stanford鈥檚 Graduate Student Council (GSC) initially approved SAS鈥檚 request for $600 in funding to aid its conference, but protests from students over its content and allegations that the conference wouldn鈥檛 make for a 鈥渟afe space鈥 prompted the GSC to retract the funding. (The minutes of the GSC鈥檚 March 5 meeting document the whole sorry spectacle.)
Fortunately, FIREreceived word yesterday evening that Stanford would cover the costs of security after all. As SAS announced, it was informed via email that the university had 鈥淸f]ound more funds to subsidize the full cost of the security鈥濃攁 lucky break, given that Stanford is only a 鈥溾 But no matter. We commend Stanford for doing the right thing here and not crippling SAS鈥檚 event by unjustly forcing it to pay the exorbitant costs of defending its right to free expression from those who would deny that right to them.
This leaves the matter of the student government鈥檚 well-documented and deplorable viewpoint discrimination against SAS, which must be immediately addressed and rectified if Stanford students are to have any faith in their student government鈥檚 (and by extension their university鈥檚) interest in protecting their free speech rights equally. The ball is in the student government鈥檚 court, and FIREand others are watching closely.
Recent Articles
FIRE鈥檚 award-winning Newsdesk covers the free speech news you need to stay informed.