Lawsuit prompts Colorado university to change policy, protect students’ freedoms

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – The University of Colorado, Colorado Springs has agreed to make policy changes to settle a lawsuit that Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys filed in November on behalf of a student group after UCCS officials refused to grant it registered status. As part of the settlement, the university agreed to grant Ratio Christi registered status, pay over $20,500 in damages and attorneys’ fees, and update its policies to ensure that a student club may require its leadership to promote the purposes of the club and hold beliefs consistent with the group’s mission. 

As a Christian apologetics organization, Ratio Christi seeks to defend the Christian faith and explain how the Bible applies to various current cultural, ethical, and political issues. Any student can attend its events and join the organization. But Ratio Christi requires that those who lead the Christian organization share its religious beliefs. As a result, the university had denied it registered status, limiting its access to funding, meeting and event space, and administrative support.

“We commend the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs for quickly implementing this common sense policy reform,” said ADF Senior Counsel Travis Barham. “It would be absurd for the university to require the vegan student group to appoint a meat-lover as its president. Thankfully, the university quickly fixed its policy by adding provisions that respect students’ rights to free association, no longer forcing Christian students to let atheists or other non-Christians to lead their Bible studies in order to become a registered club.”

The lawsuit, Ratio Christi at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs v. Sharkey, challenged the university’s policy which allowed UCCS officials to deny registered status to a group because the organization selects leaders that share and will advocate for the organization’s religious or political philosophy. They also gave officials unlimited discretion to approve or reject student groups, even groups that meet all the published requirements.

“Like any other student group at a public university, religious student organizations should be free to choose their leaders without the government meddling,” said ADF Senior Counsel Tyson Langhofer, director of the ADF Center for Academic Freedom. “Today’s university students will be tomorrow’s legislators, judges, university presidents, and voters, and we’re grateful the University of Colorado, has chosen to correct course, encourage diversity of thought, and protect students’ constitutional freedoms.”

• Pronunciation guide: Barham (BEAR’-um), Langhofer (LANG’-hoff-ur)

The ADF Center for Academic Freedom is dedicated to ensuring freedom of speech and association for students and faculty so that everyone can freely participate in the marketplace of ideas without fear of government censorship.

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