Liberty University implements new political club policy

After a month of back-and-forth negotiations, the controversy between Liberty University and the college Democrat club reached a resolution on Monday.

A proposed change in university policy, announced by Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr. over the weekend, in effect puts the student club on equal footing with the school’s College Republicans.

Both groups, along with any other political clubs on campus, now are recognized under the new policy as unofficial clubs.

The move was embraced by a student leader of the Democratic club on Monday.

“We decided to go ahead and implement (the policy) as of today,” Falwell said Monday. “The (College) Republicans have been removed from official status and been moved to the new unofficial status that we just created.”

College Democrats Secretary Jan Dervish said Monday that he was pleased with the change.

“Throughout all this, (our goal) was to be on equal footing with our counterparts,” he said. “I think that this was a successful compromise.”

Last month, LU withdrew its recognition of the club because it supported the Democratic Party’s pro-choice and pro-gay marriage rights platform and candidates.

Falwell said the previously suspended College Democrats “wouldn’t have to do anything” to be recognized under the new policy. Along with other stipulations, the policy allows unofficial clubs to use the university’s name, but they will not receive any college funding.

Also unofficial clubs that support candidates whose views are contrary to the university’s Christian mission will not lose their status, but will not be able to use the college’s facilities to endorse such candidates, Falwell said.

Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said Monday the new policy is “a step in the right direction.”

Last month, the organization asked the Internal Revenue Service to investigate LU’s tax-exempt status. A letter signed by Lynn said the school “may have violated federal tax law in denying recognition to this club while extending it to a Republican organization.”

Monday, Lynn said the new policy would be “problematic” if it only allowed clubs that support certain candidates to use LU facilities.

“We’ll have to see how that plays out,” he said. “…But I do think that this is a pretty stark recognition that the previous policy was dangerously wrong; dangerous to your tax exemption.”
Falwell said Monday the new policy was not a result of tax-related concerns.

“We checked that early on, and Mat Staver (dean of Liberty’s School of Law) could find no court rulings on whether colleges could provide funding to Republican and Democrat clubs on campus,” Falwell said. “Many schools do it, so I don’t think there’s anything illegal about it.”

“We just decided, with our religious mission, it’s going to be a nightmare to try to figure out which candidates are in-line with our school’s mission and which ones aren’t. And we feel obligated to take the same approach with the Republican club as we do with the Democrat club.”

Falwell said in an e-mail that he thought the month-long “drama” was blown “completely out of proportion” by anonymous officials from behind the scenes.

He learned over the weekend, he said, that former club president Brian Diaz had allowed an unknown person to listen by phone to a May 27 meeting between club members and school administration.

“I think it was unethical,” he said. “Because we were told that no one else was on the call, and that it was not being recorded.”

Diaz said in an e-mail Monday that the official who listened on the call was Rod Snyder, Mid-Atlantic region director of the club’s parent organization, the Young Democrats of America.

Snyder “was strictly used as a consultant,” Diaz said in the e-mail. “Never did we release or publicize any of the information of the call, nor did we use it to attack the university.”

Snyder said that his role has been to provide “outside expertise and support.”

“We never misused the information,” he said. “It’s hard to assert that that was used for political purposes.”

Diaz invited Snyder to listen discreetly to the conversation so he could “get a better handle on the situation” and provide feedback, Snyder said.

Dervish said that invitation was extended “without the knowledge or approval of anyone else in the club.”

“There was some strong criticism and rebuke of (Diaz) once we found out,” he said.

As for the new campus policy on political clubs, Snyder said Monday that it “is exactly what we were asking for.”

“I think we got, probably, the best deal that could have been made under the circumstances,” he said, “…and while we are pleased with the results, I hate that some key people were almost treated as collateral damage, in some respects. That’s unfortunate.”

On Friday, Diaz resigned as club president and announced plans to transfer from LU.

Also Friday, club members voted to remove Maria Childress as club sponsor, Dervish said. That was the same day that Falwell had told The News & Advance that Childress would not be allowed to remain as sponsor because of recent misdemeanor convictions.

“It’s a moot point now,” Falwell said Monday, since unofficial clubs will have no sponsors under the new policy.