The Capital TimesUW-Madison was wrong to deny funding for some religious activities of the student group Badger Catholic, a federal appeals court ruled earlier this week.
On Wednesday the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s ruling in a 2-1 decision that says the university’s policy of turning down funding requests from student groups for activities involving prayer, worship and proselytizing violates their First Amendment right to free speech.
“I’m very happy that the ruling was made, and it affirmed Badger Catholic’s position,” says UW-Madison junior Nico Fassino, who is entering his second year leading the organization as chairman of its board of directors.
UW-Madison officials aren’t commenting on the ruling, with a spokesperson e-mailing to say: “Our attorneys are reviewing the court’s decision and its impact and will decide on potential next steps after that analysis is complete.”
Badger Catholic, which was known as the Roman Catholic Foundation when this lawsuit started in September 2007, received no damages in the court ruling.
UW-Madison decided to deny funding for some activities of Badger Catholic, an approved student organization on campus, during the 2006-07 and 2007-08 school years. Although the university funded most of the group’s ventures, it argued that six activities were strictly religious in nature. In those cases, UW-Madison believed that awarding student fees to an organization that hosts evangelical Catholic training camps and spiritual retreats where students are counseled by priests and nuns was a violation of the separation of church and state.
But Chief Judge Frank Easterbrook of the 7th Circuit ruled that such logic doesn’t apply, writing that helping pay for these events using student fees doesn’t amount to an illegal endorsement of religion by the university.
“This ruling is going to allow a lot of great things to happen both for Badger Catholic and the other religious organizations on campus,” says Fassino, a native of Hudson, Wis., who is double-majoring in history and political science. “For the past couple years, no religious student organizations have been able to seek funding for programs that involve the three buzzwords: ‘prayer,’ ‘worship’ and ‘proselytizing.’ So what I think this ruling is going to allow is these student groups to deepen the quality and the connection of the various services they provide for students.”
The court ruling Wednesday also said that UW-Madison previously defended its policy of “paying for student activities without regard to the speakers’ perspectives” in a case that went before the U.S. Supreme Court in 2000. As a result of the landmark UW Board of Regents vs. Southworth case, the university is required to give funding on a “viewpoint neutral” basis.
Fassino notes that even though Badger Catholic hasn’t received all the funding it had hoped for in the past, the university’s student-led Student Services Finance Committee has given the OK to most of its funding requests in recent years. He says Badger Catholic was awarded $120,000 last year in funding, which comes from mandatory student fees, called segregated fees.
Adds Fassino: “What, exactly, Wednesday’s ruling means for Badger Catholic’s future budgets, I have no idea.”
In an effort to learn more about Badger Catholic and its student leader, The Cap Times sat down Thursday evening with Fassino at a coffee shop on State Street. The discussion ranged from thoughts on the recent court ruling to Fassino’s faith and what it’s like leading a conservative organization on a liberal campus. Following is an edited transcript:
Cap Times: How long have you been a member of Badger Catholic?
Fassino: Since freshman year.
CT: How did you find out about the organization?
Fassino: I attended Sunday Mass at St. Paul’s (on campus at 723 State St.) and outside afterward there were some people associated with Badger Catholic advertising for their welcome week pizza party and the speakers they had coming to campus, and I just kind of stepped into it.
CT: Why did you decide to join the group?
Fassino: They provided a lot of very cool opportunities — local and national service trips, and speaker events. It was just something about the quality of the programming they were providing in addition to it being religious in nature, which is not something I found a lot of avenues for. And as I was rediscovering my Catholic faith I found a group of students willing to mentor and guide me and help me understand what it means to be a student trying to live a life of faith on the campus.
CT: Has the Catholic Church always played an important role in your life?
Fassino: Well, I actually had a pretty big spiritual conversion. I was baptized Catholic but I fundamentally wasn’t Catholic for 18 or 19 years. And then when I came to St. Paul’s, I just met so many people who were very strong, very beautiful in their faith, and I just decided that this was the time I wanted to try and figure this out more. So I was confirmed my freshman year, I hadn’t been confirmed, and it’s just been a never-ending process of trying to grow deeper and live a more faithful life.
CT: In your words, what is Badger Catholic?
Fassino: The short version is Badger Catholic is trying to help students lead deeper lives. Our mission statement basically says Badger Catholic seeks to connect students to a faith that will inspire them to better their lives and the lives of those around them through charitable works and personal growth. And Badger Catholic is also dedicated to inspiring and maintaining a campus-wide discussion on faith.
CT: So Badger Catholic is a group of students, serving students? Does it have official ties to the Diocese of Madison or the Catholic Church?
Fassino: Nope. We’re a fully independent organization. I think it’s safe to say the faith of the majority of the students who work for Badger Catholic are Catholic. But there is no official connection to the Catholic Church. And that was something that was originally a worry of the university, and with a name like Badger Catholic, it can lead to some confusion. But we are fully independent.
CT: Has there been a good deal of tension between your organization and the university due to this lawsuit?
Fassino: There was some friction, some bad blood, in the past. The university for a number of years, I think, was worried because it’s like, “Are we actually violating the Constitution in doing this? Are we funding a church?” And Badger Catholic was arguing, “No, we’re just trying to fill a niche, trying to fill a need in services for students that are religiously based.” But that was in the past. Since I’ve been here, it’s been a very professional relationship. To be honest, I think we had really forgotten about the lawsuit, which was kind of going on in the background. So these last few years we’ve created a great working relationship with the university. We’ve still been receiving funding, so it’s imperative that there wasn’t this nasty attitude or this elephant in the room.
CT: The UW-Madison campus is sometimes ripped by conservative groups for not only being heavily left-leaning, but for generally being an oppressive place for those with religious views or more conservative voices. Do you often feel like an outsider on your own campus?
Fassino: I don’t feel like an outsider. I know I’m in a small minority of people. I know come election time and when there are discussions about religion, I am going to be in a smaller minority. But that’s fine, because I think for the most part all the students who attend the university are respectful.
CT: When the topic of religion comes up in a class do you feel comfortable speaking out on your beliefs, or do you sometimes feel the need to bite your tongue?
Fassino: Personally, I’m always fairly comfortable speaking my mind. I know it’s not always the most comfortable thing to do, and so there are situations in which I do know other people may not feel comfortable speaking up. But I always feel if I have something to add to a conversation, I say it.
CT: How many students are members of Badger Catholic?
Fassino: Well, you don’t have to be a member to participate in any of our events and we don’t have any specific meetings where everyone gets together at once like some organizations. Membership is only required if you want to become employed.
But I can give you an idea of how many people Badger Catholic comes in contact with. Our big direct service is our student-to-student peer mentoring. Last year we had 1,502 meetings with 487 different individuals. This mentoring provides the opportunity for any student to come in and talk to highly trained student leaders who are part of Badger Catholic about questions they have. They can be basic questions like, “How can I know if there is a God or not?” Or deep questions, if they are strong in the faith, like, “Where can I find resources about particular issues.” These meetings can be five minutes or two hours. They are confidential, very relaxed, and tailored to students’ spiritual well-being.
CT: What other kind of outreach does the organization do?
Fassino: Students that are part of our peer mentorship program write “reflection books” during Lent. So they’ll take various (Bible) passages to talk about and write how they are reflecting on that as a student and how that impacts their life. And people took 2,200 of those last year.
Last year we had three service break trips over both winter break and spring break, with 90 people being sent out nationally. This year we’re planning four over winter break and four over spring break, plus an international trip to Guatemala.
We had a Haiti relief dinner that drew 250 people. We do other local service events.
CT: I see the organization also promotes speaker events?
Fassino: Yes, and this year we are partnering with an atheist student group (Atheists, Humanists & Agnostics at UW-Madison) to provide a debate between Dan Barker, the (co-president) of the Freedom from Religion Foundation, and Dinesh D’Souza, a notable advocate for faith. It’s Oct. 14 and will be held in the 1,300-seat Memorial Union Theater. So we are very excited about that. And it’s free.
CT: When you connect with students on campus, are you reaching out mainly to Catholics?
Fassino: No. If a student comes to us, we’re tailored to deal with, and we’re trained to deal with students of all faith. So obviously the faith most of these students know best is Christianity. But if a student came to us and said, “I want to find out more about spirituality and I want to read some books about Buddhism,” the peer mentor would say, “OK, let’s go find some materials.” Badger Catholic has a faith resource library. And if it’s not there, they’d go to another library or find a way to gather more information and talk. And if that student is really dedicated to learning about Buddhism, then obviously the peer mentor will try to hook them up with someone on campus who is more knowledgeable.
CT: Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Fassino: Just to let people know our goal is to get students inspired and to get them connected to something, whether they’re Catholic or not, that’s going to cause them to be drivers for great positive change in the world. And our goal is to just keep that discussion going on a campus where it might be easy to let that slip.
Tip of the hat to Laura Zim for passing this on.
And Badger Catholic kudos to ... um Badger Catholic(student org)!
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