Student Sues Minnesota College Over Mandatory Fee to Left-Wing Activist Group
A student at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota has filed a lawsuit against the school, claiming a mandatory fee was used to support a left-wing activist group without her consent.
Tayah Lackie, along with the Liberty Justice Center and the Upper Midwest Law Center, is suing the university, alleging that the fee violates her First Amendment right to free speech. According to the College Fix, the lawsuit claims that Minnesota State University requires every student to pay a fee that goes to a group called Students United, a private corporation “created for the purpose of engaging in political speech, which advocates for and takes positions on controversial policies and legislation, and which purports to speak on all students’ behalf.”
Students United has been notably active in advocating for the abolition of student debt, for example. The organization has a website and social medial account titled “Fck Student Debt.”
Lackie discovered the fee after reviewing her account statement post-graduation. She stated that she received minimal information about this charge. While the fee amounts to just under $10 for an undergraduate degree, the lawsuit argues that the mandatory fee forces all students to “associate with and subsidize Students United and its speech – even if the student disagrees with it.”
Minnesota State spokesman Doug Anderson said that universities collect the fees by law. Anderson explained that a Minnesota statue “requires Minnesota State to recognize one statewide student association for the state universities, makes all state university students members of that organization, and requires each state university to collect fees on that organization’s behalf.”
Jacob Huebert, President of the Liberty Justice Center, told The College Fix that “a victory in this case would establish that state colleges and universities cannot force students to pay fees to an activist group just to be allowed to attend.”
