Officials at Wisconsin's flagship university have urged the high court to rely on a ruling involving the University of Virginia four years ago. In that case, the justices said the school breached the First Amendment by refusing to provide funds for a student Christian magazine even though it subsidized nonreligious student publications. The court ruled that when a university sets up a general policy for disbursing student activity funds, that fund becomes the equivalent of a public forum, and the university must subsidize secular and religious publications on the same basis.

Because Harvard University is not a publicly funded institution, it is not subject to today's ruling.

Harvard includes an optional $20 activity fee in each student's term bill, which is then allocated by the Undergraduate Council to student groups who apply for funding.

Linda J. Greenhouse '68, who covers the Supreme Court for The New York Times, said that although the decision will not affect private schools directly, both students and administrators are probably still following the case.

Students at private universities might use the decision as grounds to question their own activity fees, said Greenhouse, a former Crimson executive.

"UC policy is that once the money is given, we distribute it to any group that meets the finance committee's requirements," said Council President Noah Z. Seton '00.

The council's finance committee distributes money based on need and the initiative a club shows toward expanding its influence.