A clarification has been requested by an ASUO senator that would have the ASUO Constitution Court better define whether direct-funding can legally be used to increase mandatory funding to groups that hold expressive activities or practice extracurricular speech.
Students are allowed to vote during referendums that essentially decide where money is spent on campus and where it is not spent. A clarification will potentially protect the minority from whatever the majority votes on.
“Take, for example, Students for Life and Liberty in North Korea. SFL expresses a minority viewpoint on this campus, while Liberty in North Korea expresses a majority viewpoint,” ASUO Senator and petitioner Ben Rudin said. “On viewpoint neutral grounds, the two groups might be equal, but submitting them to a majoritarian vote will likely result in one group getting more funding than the other for its differences in viewpoint.”
If groups that advocate for speech are funded by referendum individuals may opt out of funding.
Rudin sent out a clarifying email along with his petition.
“This concerns a matter completely different from the EMU referendum we just had and would not affect it,” Rudin said.