Opinion ID: 2350429
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: The Recognition Criteria

Text: On October 13, 1977, the gay students of Georgetown University held a public meeting in a room on campus. Sometime later, the group chose a name, Gay People of Georgetown University (GPGU), and adopted a constitution. [5] After its formation, GPGU met weekly, its activities including lectures, discussions, film shows and social events. Around the same time, a similar development occurred at the Law Center. There, a group known as the Gay Rights Coalition (GRC) of Georgetown University Law Center formed and adopted a constitution. [6] Unfortunately, in contrast to GPGU, the record is relatively barren with regard to GRC's origins and subsequent activities. After a time, both student groups decided to seek the formal status and attendant privileges enjoyed by many other campus organizations. On the main campus, where GPGU is based, the procedures for doing so were established by written guidelines. When GPGU first initiated the recognition process, during academic year 1978-79, these criteria were contained in a document issued by the Student Activities Commission (SAC) under the name What Your Club Needs to Know. This document was superseded in the fall of 1979 by another, more specific set of guidelines known as Recognition Criteria: Student Clubs and Organizations (hereinafter Recognition Criteria). This later document primarily clarified and expanded upon the criteria set forth in the earlier one; the two were not inconsistent. Hence, although GPGU in fact made two unsuccessful applications in successive academic years, one under each set of guidelines, we make no distinction between their applications and treat both as though they were governed by Recognition Criteria. Also because the guidelines do not conflict, we reject the student groups' claim that Recognition Criteria  the later and more explicit of the two  is a self-serving, pretextual document, adopted in response to GPGU's first application and designed to close the door on its second one. Recognition Criteria sets forth a tiered system of support available to undergraduate student groups: This support, in order to reach all the members of the community, is offered on three different levels. Id. at 1. Applications are initially submitted to SAC, an advisory body of the undergraduate student senate. The different levels of support are defined as follows: Student Body Endorsement : SAC grants this recognition representing the interest of the Student Government and the entire student body. University Recognition : SAC makes recommendations concerning this recognition. Final approval is granted through the University's Director of Student Activities. University Funding : is recognition in a monetary form. Id. The three tiers of recognition are listed in declining order of accessibility. The most accessible, Student Body Endorsement, does not depend on approval by the University administration. It is available to any group which satisfies basic requirements as to size and composition and whose activities are within the scope of the student body interest and concern, serving an educational, social, or cultural purpose. Id. at 2. The more elusive University Recognition, the status at issue in this case, requires approval by the University administration and may only be sought by groups that have already obtained Student Body Endorsement. In order to obtain University Recognition, such organizations have to satisfy two further conditions. They must: (1) be successful in aiding the University's educational mission in the tradition established by its founders (as outlined in the University's Statement of Educational Goals and Objectives [7] ); and (2) provide a broad service to the University community in the sense that the activities of the group may not be of an immediate and/or special interest. Id. at 3. Recognition Criteria describes University Recognition as Georgetown's endorsement of the various co-curricular activities undertaken by a specific club. Id. at 1. University Funding, the third and least accessible tier of recognition, may be sought only by groups that have already obtained University Recognition. Such groups, however, have no automatic right to direct financial support. Id. at 4. Lastly, and only implicitly, a fourth tier exists outside the scheme established by Recognition Criteria  that occupied by completely unrecognized campus groups, operating without even Student Body Endorsement. More than status is at stake. The facilities and services afforded to a student group by the University are dependent upon its level of recognition within this three-tiered scheme. A group with Student Body Endorsement, but without University Recognition, may: (a) use University facilities; (b) apply for lecture fund privileges; (c) receive financial counseling from the SAC comptroller; (d) use campus advertising; and (e) petition to receive assistance from Student Government. Id. at 2-3. University Recognition entitles a group to four additional benefits. They may (f) use a mailbox in the SAC office and request one in Hoya Station; (g) use the Computer Label Service; (h) use mailing services; and (i) apply for funding. Id. at 3. Success in obtaining direct financial support, a discretionary decision by the University, elevates a student group to University Funding, the highest tier established by Recognition Criteria. No written guidelines such as Recognition Criteria were issued at the Law Center, where GRC was located. The University's treatment of GPGU's and GRC's respective applications was, however, indistinguishable. More importantly, the student groups do not suggest that any alternative criteria were ever in force at the Law Center. We have no basis on which to conclude that the eligibility factors to be applied to GRC are significantly different from the written guidelines set forth in Recognition Criteria at the main campus.