Conservative groups tackle funding challenges

Conservative groups across the country are fighting an uphill battle against university groups that do not want to fund them. On Monday night, the Student Activities Council voted to restrict recognition and remove funding from The Red and Blue after it determined that the magazine was a political organization and therefore not qualified to receive SAC money. But many have accused SAC of axing The Red and Blue's funding not because it is political, but because it expresses a conservative political slant rather than a liberal one. Earlier this month, the Student Services Fees Committee at the University of Minnesota also voted to deny funds to two student groups, Students for Family Values and the Conservative Student Interest Group. The Minnesota committee voted not to give money to the Conservative Student Interest Group because it is not a registered student group. Its members also did not sign an Equal Opportunity Statement. Robin Dodson, treasurer of Students for Family Values, said her group was not supported by the SSFC for purely political reasons -- because it is a conservative group. Her organization not only signed the statement, she said, but members of all races and affiliations -- even Democrats -- are involved. "I feel they have their own program against conservative groups," she said. "And they were going to deny us no matter what. If we went along with their guidelines then they would give us funding." The SSFC funds liberal groups such as YM, a feminist organization, the Minnesota Public Interest Research Group and a gay, lesbian and bisexual group, Dodson added. Although the circumstances surrounding the decision at Minnesota and at the University differ, student leaders at the two universities had similar reactions. According to The Red and Blue Layout Editor Jeff Greenhouse, a Wharton sophomore, it was obvious that SAC representatives were set against funding the magazine from the outset. "When voting for de-recognition, their demeanor was lacking a certain decorum," he said. "It was gleeful [and] they weren't doing it very professionally. "They took it more to a personal level of 'wow we're beating them,' " Greenhouse added. Patrick Sperry, a member of the SSFC at the University of Minnesota, said he voted to award the groups funding, but refused to comment as to whether or not he thought the committee's decision was fair. A SSFC subcommittee recommended funding the groups as well. "Obviously I voted for the subcommittee's recommendations so I agree with it," he said. "I don't want to say something on fairness at this point. The recent tribulations between administration and conservative groups is not new to Minnesota's campus, according to Dodson. A few years ago the administration confiscated conservative literature that contained jokes about President Clinton, the Minnesota senior added. "That not only violates the First Amendment," she said. "That's censorship -- plain and simple."

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.