USC being sued

Saw this in the religion brief's on Yahoo! News, suprised that I've not seen it in TheState, or any other local publication:


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Religious group sues University of South Carolina over student fees

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A federal lawsuit alleges that the University of South Carolina discriminates against student religious groups because the school does not give them activity fees available to other student organizations.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled more than a decade ago that universities cannot refuse to give activity fees to religious groups, according to the Alliance Defense Fund Center for Academic Freedom and the Christian Legal Society, who filed the suit.
Russ McKinney, a university spokesman, said he hasn't seen the lawsuit and can't comment.
The advocacy groups said they sent a copy of the suit to the university with a letter saying they will drop the legal action if the school changes its policy within two weeks. The groups are representing the university's Christian Legal Society chapter, which says it was denied fees in February.
"Christian student groups shouldn't be discriminated against for their beliefs," said Casey Mattox, one of the attorneys who filed the lawsuit.

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Hmmm... I understand both the Supreme Court Opinion and exactly why the University has been witholding funding from Campus religious organizations. The overwhelming feeling - and this is coming from the Chaplains association is that it's too easy to start a "religious" group on campus that doesn't last, the members of the association have seen many groups form with no formal association to any major religious institution or local congregation and seem to center on a single personality, which causes the group to dissolve after the personality leaves. If the Chaplains have that much difficulty in deciding who to let in their association - then it's no wonder that the university would be wary of giving university students in clubs and groups that aren't tied to the Chaplains association get a little from the kitty.

But at the same time, students can form ad hoc groups and receive funding so long as they attend (Student Goverment) Treasurer's workshops and submit a detailed proposal as to how much they need and what the money is being used for to the Treasurer's office.

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