The case, Southworth v. Grebe, will be taken up in October. Student organizations and fifteen states have already filed a dozen amicus curaie briefs on behalf of the UW Regents. Dartmouth College continues to employ mandatory student fees, by which students must finance advocacy groups on campus. A Supreme Court decision would not bar the College, a private institution, from continuing its policy. Still, a Court holding that mandatory student activities fees violate the First Amendment would seriously undermine the College's credibility in coercing students to fund advocacy organizations, and threaten Dartmouth's status as an institution of liberal education.
Liberal education rests on a free and open exchange of ideas.
Education, especially at the college level, should be a process of sorting out the respective merits of differing viewpoints and opinions. Through evaluating divergent ideas, students become rational and responsible citizens. The liberal enterprise always rests on a student's right and ability to define his own beliefs, to identify and pursue one's own conception of the good life. Compelling student support of political activities one opposes is a manifest violation of the freedom of belief that liberal education requires. While not as politically active as other campuses, Dartmouth has its share of overtly political messages expressed by groups that are subsidized by the College.