At the start of every school year, every student has a $109 fee – known as the Student Activities Fee (SAF) – tacked onto their tuition bills in order to fund events and programs on campus. Because every student is required to pay this fee, it is meant to fund events that all students can attend, and is not to be allocated toward events that are partisan in nature, whether religious or political – unless these events are educational.
That all sounds well and good, until you hear something like this: This week, the Catholic Center of Northeastern (CCNU) is hosting a series of events aimed at “educating” the Northeastern community on anti-abortion views, and – you guessed it – students are paying for this “NU Right to Life Week” via the SAF.
We’re sure it’s not easy to be a religious group sharing conservative views to a very liberal campus in the middle of a very liberal town, and although the majority of The News’ editorial board is pro-choice, we believe the CCNU has every right to host such a week and share its views.
But – and this is a big but – we don’t want to pay for it.
The Budget Review Committee (BRC), the branch of Student Government Association (SGA) charged with allocating SAF funds, decides what events are approved and denied. It also decides which events are partisan, and if they are, it decides if they are educational.
Whether the NU Right to Life Week is “educational” is up to debate. The Catholic Center feels sharing opposing views is educational, but where does “educational” stop and “preaching” begin? With a name like “Right to Life” — which suggests that the so-called “right to life,” or right to fetuses not to be aborted, is inherent instead of debatable — the Catholic Center started off on the wrong foot.
According to the anti-abortion student group, NU Right To Life, 1,210 abortions happen every year and the group will conduct a memorial service tomorrow using flags to represent dead fetuses. During the event, Dr. Tony Levantino, a former abortionist, will speak on the side of the pro-life group and on why he decided to change his view on the issue. The event is co-sponsored by the CCNU, which started the week off Monday by holding a pro-life, pro-choice debate at 20 West Village F.
The speaker, Dr. Levantino, performed abortions for eight years at an Albany, NY Hospital before pulling the plug on his duty in 1985. Since then, Levantino has become a pro-life poster boy for several catholic and pro-life organizations. Northeastern’s Student Activities Fee has been used to finance the events, which represents the beliefs of Northeastern’s Catholic population.
These events have brought the controversial issue to the forefront of Northeastern life, while simultaneously using finances for biased purposes. With the promotion of a pro-life mentality, there has been little to no voice for pro-choice ideology. If you are part of a student activity on campus, organizations like this are cutting funds from groups that can provide an event which doesn’t discriminate.
In the BRC guidelines it states that religious programs will only be funded if they are educational, but is this event educational?
An event like this blurs the line between educational and religious influence. Although the event is open to everyone, the organizations viewpoint is extremely one-sided.
The misfinancing of student organizations shows the lack of responsibility the BRC has for the students. It is unfair to deviously educate students with an underlying bias. If the BRC allocates money to partisan group, it gets a precedent fore more poorly financed events in the future.
