InterVarsity Christian Fellowship has sued SUNY Broome Community College in Binghamton, New York, challenging the school’s refusal to recognize its campus chapter unless the group allows non-Christians to serve in leadership positions.
The lawsuit was filed Aug. 21 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York and names InterVarsity Christian Fellowship of SUNY Broome as a plaintiff. InterVarsity is an evangelical, interdenominational campus ministry active at hundreds of colleges and universities nationwide, while SUNY Broome is part of the State University of New York system.
The ministry says students of any faith or no faith are welcome to participate in its activities, but leadership positions are reserved for students who sincerely affirm the group’s Christian beliefs.
SUNY Broome officials, however, told the organization that limiting leadership roles to practicing Christians violates the college’s nondiscrimination policy. Because of that policy, the college has declined to recognize the InterVarsity chapter as an official student organization.
According to the lawsuit, the loss of recognition prevents the group from receiving benefits available to other student clubs, including access to meeting space, recruitment opportunities, funding and other campus resources.
“InterVarsity exists to help students know Jesus, grow in their faith, and build friendships that will last a lifetime,” Jake Sonner, a member of InterVarsity Broome, said in a statement. “Everyone is welcome. You don’t have to be a Christian to walk through our door. We just ask that students who lead our prayers and worship actually share the faith they are helping others live out. A public college shouldn’t exclude us for that.”
The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a Washington, D.C.-based public-interest law firm representing InterVarsity, argues that SUNY Broome’s policy violates the ministry’s First Amendment rights.
“In the past fifteen years, the Supreme Court has repeatedly held that religious organizations have a fundamental First Amendment right to freely select religious leaders without state interference. ... But SUNY Broome claims it gets to dictate who InterVarsity chapters select for their religious leadership,” the complaint states.
The dispute is not the first involving InterVarsity’s leadership standards at a public university. Similar conflicts previously arose at Wayne State University in Michigan and the University of Iowa, where federal courts ultimately ruled in favor of the student organizations.
In 2021, a three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously sided with InterVarsity in its case against the University of Iowa, concluding that the school had engaged in viewpoint discrimination.
