(The Daily Wire)—A graduate of St. Cloud State University is suing her alma mater after learning that she was charged a mandatory fee for an activist group that pushes liberal political speech.
Tayah Lackie filed a federal lawsuit with the help of the Liberty Justice Center and the Upper Midwest Law Center, The College Fix reported. The lawsuit argues that this mandatory fee violates Lackie’s First Amendment rights to free speech.
The lawsuit alleges that the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities, of which St. Cloud State is a part, “mandates that every student who attends a school in that system be a member of, and pay union dues to, a group called Students United – a private corporation created for the purpose of engaging in political speech, which advocates for and takes positions on controversial policies and legislation, and which purports to speak on all students’ behalf.”
The lawsuit notes that Students United has “aggressively advocated for the abolition of student debt – including through a website called “Fck Student Debt” and a Twitter/X account, @FckStudentDebt.”
Because of the mandatory fee, every student who attends a school in the Minnesota State University system “is forced to associate with and subsidize Students United and its speech – even if the student disagrees with it.
Lackie noted that she only learned about the fee after she graduated when she was looking at her “account statement” and saw the deducted fee. Lackie, who “paid [her] own way without taking on debt,” is opposed to abolishing student debt and other policies for which Students United has advocated.
Jacob Huebert, president of the Liberty Justice Center, told the Fix that “a victory in this case would establish that state colleges and universities cannot force students to pay fees to an activist group just to be allowed to attend.”
The current fee is just “80 cents per credit,” the lawsuit says, which amounts to $9.60 for an undergraduate degree, which requires 120 credits
Lackie says she received only minimal information about the charge.
The lawsuit also revealed that 76% of Student United’s funding comes from the mandatory fees charged to students. The lawsuit says students “are not informed of any right they have not to associate with Students United” and are not “given any opportunity to waive any right not to associate with Students United.”
Minnesota law requires colleges and universities in its system to recognize a statewide student association and draw fees for the organization.