Conservative group files motion against University at Buffalo for withholding funding
The Alliance Defending Freedom has filed a new motion for a preliminary injunction against the school after it allegedly blocked access to over $6,000 in funding for its YAF chapter.
UB made the move after the YAF group refused to merge with the Student Association and sign away many of its legal rights, including conducting independent financial transactions.
A conservative student group is escalating its ongoing lawsuit against the University at Buffalo after the school allegedly blocked its access to over $6,000 in funding.
The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) filed a motion for a preliminary injunction on March 22 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York on behalf of UB Young Americans for Freedom.
The document alleges that the Student Association has denied the conservative group access to funding for refusing to sign a document relinquishing many of its rights, which “has forced the group to forego, cancel, or curtail numerous opportunities to advance its views on campus.”
Vice President for Student Life Brian Hamluck, Interim Dean of Student Tomas Aguirre, and Director of Student Engagement Phyllis Floro, along with the UB Student Association, are named as defendants.
The motion describes the Student Association’s recent requirement that student group officers sign an “Acknowledgment of Club Officer Responsibilities” form. This would attest that the group in question would not be a “separate legal entity from [Student Association],” “[H]ave any accounts or financial activities outside of [Student Association],” “[S]ign contracts,” or “[C]ommence litigation.”
The motion states that refusing to sign the document has “prevented the group from using any of the $6,315.21 in its account to conduct its expressive activities, and at the end of this semester, those funds will revert to Student Association.”
The document asserts that signing the agreement would carry other legal implications for student groups, including giving the Student Association discretion as to whether they may associate with national organizations or what financial transactions they conduct.
The regulation would merge all student groups into the Student Association, who “would represent the speech of all absorbed groups.” The motion notes that this would entail other group activities inadvertently on the YAF chapter, and that the “group and its members want nothing to do with this strange arrangement as it compels them to participate in expression to which they object.”
The motion concludes by asking the court to “issue a preliminary injunction that restores the status quo by prohibiting Defendants from enforcing this policy to derecognize them or deny them the benefits of recognition.”
This is the latest development in the lawsuit that was originally filed last June after the Student Association revoked the status of student organizations affiliated with national groups. The move came in response to student backlash levied against the UB YAF chapter for hosting conservative commentator Michael Knowles, as previously reported by Campus Reform.
UB YAF referred Campus Reform to ADF for comment.
The University at Buffalo, the UB Student Association, Young Americans for Freedom, and the Alliance Defending Freedom have all been contacted for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
