Threatening legal action, YAF forces UW–La Crosse to remove mandated DEI statements
YAF partnered with two legal groups to challenge a policy that required conservative students forming a chapter to sign a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) statement.
Dan Lennington, Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty Deputy Counsel, stated that, 'this is a victory for free speech and equality.'
The conservative Young America’s Foundation (YAF) recently secured a major legal win for freedom of speech at the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse.
YAF successfully partnered with the Mountain States Legal Foundation (MSLF) and the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL) to challenge a policy that required conservative students forming a new chapter to sign a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) statement.
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In order to be officially recognized as a student group, a new YAF chapter was required by the university to include support for DEI-related information in its organizational bylaws.
In March 2021, a student government resolution requirement was passed mandating the inclusion of the DEI statement for all student groups.
Both WILL and MSLF claimed that the DEI requirement “violated YAF’s values” and the student group’s First Amendment rights.
Had the policy remained in effect, every official student organization would be forced to claim it values and recognizes the “diversity” of the university community, including people’s “documentation status,” “gender identity,” and “sexual orientation.”
YAF rejected calls to force such a statement on all student organizations, stating that it “explicitly endorses illegal immigration, leftist gender ideology, and promises that the YAF chapter will fight for ‘social justice,’ which is essentially code for whatever the Left’s latest agenda item may be.”
On Dec. 14, YAF’s legal counsel sent a letter to the university saying that, “the University of Wisconsin may not compel student groups to express these ideological beliefs—regardless of their underlying merit—because the Constitution forbids it.”
The letter also stated that the statements themselves are “dubious” and present a “controversial view” with regard to the term “gender identity” — forcing YAF students to “deny biological reality.”
James Kerwin, Senior Counsel at MSLF, also stated that, “universities are supposed to be havens for free inquiry and expression. But, like many schools nationwide, UW is going in the opposite direction: outlawing speech and trying to force dissenters to shut up and tow the party line.”
On Dec. 15, UW General Counsel Quinn Williams sent a letter to then-Chancellor Joe Gow, stating that the DEI requirement was prohibited by Regent Policy Document 30-6, which gives student organizations the “authority to condition membership to such student organization on its own goals and beliefs.”
The student association of the university “impermissibly limits the ability of such student organizations’ ability to determine their own goals and beliefs,” Williams added.
He concluded, “As a result, it is the determination of the Office of General Counsel that the requirement for the Statement as a condition for inclusion in any student organization’s bylaws, including YAF, at UW-La Crosse as a condition of recognition, is invalid, and may not be used as a condition of recognition for student organizations at UW-La Crosse.”
After the school ultimately did away with the DEI statement, Dan Lennington, WILL Deputy Counsel, stated that, “this is a victory for free speech and equality.”
“We applaud the students at UW-La Crosse for standing up for themselves and setting a great example for others to follow,” he continued. “On the other hand, it’s time for academia to ditch the woke nonsense.”
Campus Reform has reached out to all organizations named and will update this article accordingly.
