Texas travesty for GLBT students

We have been critical of IU’s student government at times. But we are glad that the IU Student Association has never attempted to do what the Texas A&M University Student Senate did last week.

As the Texas House of Representatives considered a bill to deny funding to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender campus resource centers, so did Texas A&M’s Student Senate.

Student governments are not usually known for taking brash action to defund programs that benefit their own constituents. But last Wednesday, the Student Senate voted 35-28 to propose allowing students to opt out of funding campus services that violate their religious beliefs.

The measure is discriminatory, poorly reasoned and ignorant of university funding structures. It is an outstanding example of student government playing house in the worst possible way. It is a lesson to other student governments in how not to represent the best interests of diverse campus communities.

The Student Senate’s “Religious Funding Exemption Bill” is not designed to defend religious liberties. It is a deliberate attempt to withdraw support from a campus minority. Originally called the “GLBT Funding Opt-Out Bill,” it was crafted with a singular target in mind: the campus GLBT resource center.

This board debated whether programs that diffuse costs to deliver concentrated benefits, like GLBT services, are proper allocations of student funds. All students pay for Texas A&M’s GLBT resource center, even though a small percentage of the student body uses it.

But if GLBT services are defunded, should women’s centers and international services suffer the same fate?

The immediate benefits of GLBT services are concentrated, but we believe that providing students who may be unwelcome on campus with a safe place to go for support ultimately leads to safer, healthier and more cohesive campus environments.

As far as we can tell, this is not the kind of conversation the Student Senate had. Instead, it opted to pass a measure that supports giving students carte blanche to withdraw money from any campus program or service that they feel offends their religious beliefs.

Most people pay for things they do not like or do not use. On university campuses, we know this concept as student fees. In real life, we know it as taxation. No one particularly likes it, but if no one participated, the programs and services that any given person does use would be threatened with financial collapse.

Allowing students to opt out of paying for select campus programs on a basis like religious beliefs has the potential to threaten the financial integrity of those campus programs, and none more so than programs that serve minorities.

Fortunately, the Religious Funding Exemption Bill is largely symbolic, packing no administrative power. And it was Texas toast by the time it landed on the desk of student body president John Claybrook, who vetoed the bill on grounds that it caused “great harm” to the student body’s reputation.

We applaud Claybrook’s courage, and we hope the bill does not surface again. At its core, it represents a proposal that would antagonize students and financially destabilize campus programs and services. Student governors would be wise to stand up to such attempts rather than foster them.