A decision requiring the University of Wisconsin to let its students selectively fund campus organizations would place a serious burden on campus debate at all public universities. The suing students have speciously proposed that the groups in question might be able to fund themselves, but this would grant a voice on campus only to those groups popular enough to become self-supporting. In the university environment, as much learning can occur outside the classroom as within. A vibrant community of often discordant student groups is a public good that all students benefit from and that all students can reasonably be expected to support.

Fees Also a Form of Speech

No idea of liberty is more sacred or hallowed in our society than the freedom of expression. It is also true that this right exists precisely to protect speech that may seem controversial and unpopular.

Yet this right stretches only so far. If I disagree with opinions held by the Christian Coalition, I must not censor their speech, but I am under no obligation to support it or give money to its cause. The staff proposes just that, in effect requiring students to fund the activities of overtly political groups--obliging us to pay for their posters, soapboxes and other accoutrements of activism.

In addition, the staff overlooks the fact that the ability to withhold funds from groups or organizations is itself a powerful form of expression. An optional term bill fee would allow students to voice their disapproval of groups which they found offensive by choosing not to fund them. To deny them this opportunity is to deny them a powerful avenue of dissent.