College Pro-Life Group Fights Back After Student Government Designates Its Views as 'Hateful'
University of Northern Iowa officials are questioning a decision made by members of its student government and supreme court to deny formal recognition to a pro-life group.
UNI student senators and supreme court justices have opposed recognition of a chapter of the nonprofit, pro-life group Students for Life of America on campus, with the supreme court arguing the group “would create a hostile environment, and student senators [describing] them as a harmful influence,” Fox News reported.
The UNI student behind the chapter’s formation, Sophia Schuster, appealed her case to the university’s president, and the public school’s officials are questioning if student leaders violated SFLA’s First Amendment rights.
“The University of Northern Iowa supports shared governance, as well as our students’ right to appeal,” UNI public relations manager Steve Schmadeke told Fox News on Oct. 16.
“Once we receive the appeal, the university will conduct a thorough review and issue a final decision on the student group’s registration, ” Schmadeke added. “The university will ensure compliance with our policies, and with state and federal law.”
The university previously commented about a week prior to the conservative youth organization Young America’s Foundation, “The University of Northern Iowa is committed to protecting our students’ First Amendment rights and is concerned that recent actions by the student government violated UNI policy by rendering a decision that was not content-neutral.
“We have provided the petitioning student organization with resources and encouraged them to appeal the decision, which they did this afternoon,” a university spokesman added. “UNI will not uphold a decision that violates the First Amendment and university policy.”
The odyssey began for the Cedar Falls SFLA chapter when the Northern Iowa Student Government rejected its initial application for official recognition on campus during a Zoom meeting earlier this month, according to an Oct. 9 report on SFLA’s national website.
“I wasn’t really surprised by how NISG reacted because I know abortion is a controversial topic, but I was shocked by how they allowed their emotions and personal opinions to influence their decision,” Schuster said at the time.
“Students for Life met all of requirements for being approved set forth by UNI, but they completely ignored that fact,” she added. “I think they have overstepped their role and tried to use their power to silence us just because they disagree.
“This is a direct attack on free speech and of due process of law and an example of abandoning standards that they claim to hold,” Schuster said.
In a subsequent SFLA story on Oct. 15, the organization reported that the university’s student supreme court upheld NISG’s decision, ruling SFLA was “not being formed ‘in good faith’ or with ‘a lawful purpose.'”
The court claimed “that allowing SFLA’s chapter to operate would violate a university policy guaranteeing the ‘right to be treated with dignity and respect by all persons involved in the student conduct process,'” Fox reported.
“Allowing this organization that openly disregards the rights of women and other subsequent groups is not demonstrating nor upholding this policy,” the ruling read.
“I wasn’t completely surprised when the NISG Senate rejected our application the first time,” Schuster said. “But after talking to members of Student Government and being assured that this would be resolved as soon as possible, I was blown away by the decision to reject our appeal.
“I had no idea how ignorant our Student Government was about their role on our campus,” she added. “They have truly shown how determined they are to ignore the law set before them that they have sworn to uphold in order to censor those they disagree with.”
During the student senate Zoom meeting — clips of which were obtained by YAF — while a few senators argued their constituents would likely disapprove of SFLA being funded with their tuition payments, others cited their personal perceptions of SFLA’s principles in rejecting the group’s application.
Student Sen. Max Tensen called SFLA a “hate group,” claiming its “hateful rhetoric is infringing on basic human rights of health care.”
“We cannot support diversity and be complicit in its destruction at the same time,” Tensen added.
An unidentified female student legislator likened approving SFLA’s application to “approving a white supremacist group.”
“You’re basically saying you support [SFLA] to violate human rights, and I’m sorry, but I don’t want a group on campus that’s going to like … just an example … if I’m pregnant, they’re going to try to force me not to abort my child,” she said. “That’s not their choice.”
“I do not think that we should approve of this organization, and it should serve as an example of us not tolerating any infringement to human rights,” said Triet Ngo, another student senator.
Ngo rationalized that SFLA proposes “abortion is bad,” a viewpoint he said “can result in catastrophic consequences for productive rights.”
“I would argue that not all opinions are equal, there are opinions, and there are opinions that get people killed in many cases,” Ngo said. “In that case, there’s really no middle ground here. For me, we’re veering dangerously close to false equivalency, as in we assume that all opinions deserve equal footing.”
Student Sen. Caleb Stekl said he would “beg and plead and implore with anyone who does approve of this” to stand in front of their female constituents and “tell them that you have approved an organization that wants to criminalize them for using their reproductive rights.”
Stekl downplayed concerns that lawsuits could be filed against the university for rejecting the application, calling that argument “extremely facile and weak” and “a complete preference or privileging of money and of admins, over student wellbeing.”
“Student government and student organizations are meant to assist students in promoting change and ideas and to shape their character as leaders,” said SFLA regional coordinator Sarah Minnich, who assisted Schuster in starting what would be one of more than 1,240 SFLA chapters.
In an Oct. 16 Students for Life Action news release, Minnich said the decisions of the students government and supreme court “put their ideological affiliations above fellow students and at the cost of productive dialogue on campus.”
Minnich said the chapter’s plans to assist pregnant students and “promote the dignity of the preborn” were good faith reasons to start the chapter.
“Their decision is unacceptable and should be overturned by the university’s president,” Minnich concluded.
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