FIRE News: Religious Liberty Vindicated Across University of Wisconsin System

Dear Mr. Levy: On Friday, the University of Wisconsin’s Board of Regents finally voted to protect students’ religious liberty and freedom of expression. The Regents approved a policy recognizing resident assistants’ right to lead Bible studies and to participate in the full range of campus activities—a right previously denied on campuses in Eau Claire and Madison. Yet this clear victory for freedom only highlights the struggle for religious liberty on campuses across America. More information about the Wisconsin case, as well as a retrospective look at many of FIRE’s previous religious liberty cases, is available in the extended version of this press release, available exclusively on the FIRE website. FIRE’s full press release on this case appears below, but if your e-mail client does not support HTML, you can view a link-rich version at www.thefire.org/index.php/article/6899.html. Sincerely, Greg Lukianoff, Interim President Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) 601 Walnut Street, Suite 510 Philadelphia, PA 19106 Phone: 215-717-3473; Fax: 215-717-3440 ------------------------ Religious Liberty Vindicated Across University of Wisconsin System Case Highlights Lack of Respect for Freedom of Religion on Campuses Nationwide   MADISON, Wis., March 14, 2006—On Friday afternoon, the University of Wisconsin’s (UW’s) Board of Regents voted to protect religious liberty and freedom of expression on every UW campus. After six months of public pressure from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), the Regents finally approved a policy that allows resident assistants (RAs) to lead Bible studies or any other meetings in their own dorm rooms.   “UW’s decision to uphold religious liberty and freedom of expression is of national significance,” stated FIRE Interim President Greg Lukianoff. “The ‘Bible study ban’ was unfair, unconstitutional, and highly unpopular.”   The Bible study controversy began at the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire (UWEC), where on July 26, 2005, a university administrator sent Christian RAs a letter ordering them to stop leading Bible studies in their dormitories. Administrators banned all voluntary studies of the Bible, Koran, and Torah that took place in the RAs’ own rooms or anywhere in their own dormitories. The officials believed that holding such studies would make RAs less “approachable” to students who did not share their religion. FIRE subsequently discovered that UW-Madison, the system’s flagship campus, enforced a similar ban.   In October 2005, FIRE launched a campaign to abolish the unjust “Bible study ban.” FIRE asked UWEC Interim Chancellor Vicki Lord Larson to lift the ban on October 10 and took UWEC’s repression public on November 2. This led to outcry from USA Today, newspapers across the Midwest, Fox News Channel, countless radio programs, and several Wisconsin legislators. Under pressure, UWEC suspended its ban on November 30 pending a system-wide review.   FIRE weighed in on that review process by writing to UW System President Kevin P. Reilly and to Wisconsin Attorney General Peggy A. Lautenschlager in defense of expressive rights on campus. FIRE also connected Lance Steiger, the RA who bravely protested the ban, with attorneys from the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), who filed a lawsuit on his behalf.   After six months of constant coverage, the Board of Regents put an end to the controversy on Friday when it approved a policy that gave RAs the right to “participate in, organize, and lead any meetings or other activities, within their rooms, floors or residence halls, or anywhere else on campus, to the same extent as other students.”   “UW’s choice to uphold First Amendment rights should serve as an example for state universities across the United States,” said Lukianoff. “FIRE continually encounters immoral and unconstitutional limitations to students’ religious liberty and freedom of expression, and has for years fought for students’ right to associate freely, without interference from intrusive university administrators.”   Every year, FIRE struggles against the tendency of colleges and universities to deny religious organizations the freedom to govern themselves according to their own religious principles. This tendency threatens religious groups’ freedom of association, a right that secular groups often take for granted. In the last two years, FIRE has won victories for religious freedom at Princeton University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Purdue University, Louisiana State University, William Paterson University, and the Milwaukee School of Engineering, among others. A more comprehensive retrospective of FIRE’s work on religious liberty is available in the extended version of this press release on FIRE’s website.   “FIRE has been consistently victorious in defending the rights of individuals to express their religious beliefs and of organizations to govern themselves according to the dictates of their faith,” Lukianoff concluded. “Until college administrators give students and faculty members the right to follow their consciences, FIRE will continue its battle for religious liberty.”   FIRE is a nonprofit educational foundation that unites civil rights and civil liberties leaders, scholars, journalists, and public intellectuals from across the political and ideological spectrum on behalf of individual rights, due process, freedom of expression, academic freedom, and rights of conscience at our nation’s colleges and universities. FIRE’s efforts to preserve religious liberty on America’s college campuses can be viewed at thefire.org/religiousliberty.   CONTACT: Greg Lukianoff, Interim President, FIRE: 215-717-3473; greg_lukianoff@thefire.org     FIRE's work is made possible by the generosity of our individual supporters. Please click here to make your tax-deductible contribution.

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