Two Kennesaw State student organizations are suing the university over issues regarding student organization classifications and “unconstitutional” free speech zones on campus.
Alliance Defending Freedom filed a suit against KSU Monday, March 5, on behalf of KSU’s Young Americans for Freedom chapter after the university charged the group an extra security fee to invite a guest speaker to campus.
The YAF invited Katie Pavlich, a news contributor at Fox News and editor at Townhall Magazine, to campus Wednesday, March 7, to speak about media bias, but the group was required to pay the university a fee of $320 to have extra security at the event.
According to the complaint, Reservation Specialist Janice Malone told YAF: “Based upon the speaker you plan on hosting for your event and your projected amount of attendees, there is a little more controversy surrounding this person than that of other lesser know [sic] individuals. In light of this, Public Safety has deemed it necessary, for the sake of precaution, to have both officers there.”
The lawsuit says that by charging YAF the extra fee and not allowing the group to use student activity fee funding to clear the cost, the university is engaging in “viewpoint discrimination.”
“All too often, university officials — including those at Kennesaw State University —seek to silence or restrict those who express ideas to which they object, using a myriad of different university policies to effectuate this censorship,” the complaint said.
The lawsuit also mentions KSU’s student organization ranking system, saying that it allows the university to subjectively rank groups on campus. Student groups are assigned to one of four different classifications, which limits them to what space they can use on campus and what funding they have access to.
The four classifications are, from lowest to highest tier, “recognized,” “affiliated,” “sponsored” and “chartered.” According to the Marietta Daily Journal, ADF said that there are no faith-based or overtly political groups higher than the “affiliated” tier — YAF is classified in the “recognized” tier.
ADF also filed a lawsuit against the university on behalf of another KSU student group on Feb. 20 — less than two weeks before they filed the YAF complaint.
According to the AJC, Ratio Christi, a Christian student organization, said that KSU’s policies for where on-campus students can put up displays and speak to students are unconstitutional.
Club members said that KSU officials have repeatedly denied their requests to put up a pro-life display in their preferred spot on campus because the university told them the display was “controversial,” according to the AJC.
KSU student Zachary Bohannon is involved in both of the lawsuits as the co-founder of KSU’s YAF chapter and a board member of Ratio Christi.
According to the AJC, the Georgia Legislature is currently considering a bill that would protect free speech for people speaking on college and university campuses.
In the interest of full disclosure, one of The Sentinel’s advisers, Ed Bonza, is one of the defendants listed in both of these cases.