Two Christian student groups are suing Virginia State University (VSU), claiming the historically black school has discriminated against them by instituting a policy putting their clubs under the governance of a single university-employed campus minister despite doctrinal disagreements. Women of Victory and Bethel Campus Fellowship filed a complaint against VSU last week in the U.S.
District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Richmond Division, over an August policy change that they say strips some religious student groups of their registered status and requires them to be absorbed into a university entity called Campus Ministries. Campus Ministries is overseen by a single campus minister, Thomas Wynn, and a board of advisers.
According to the lawsuit, the board will be able to decide when the groups can hold events and invite guest speakers. “Notably, the Policy explicitly exempts the Muslim Students Association and the VSU Community Faith Alliance — the only non-Christian religious organizations at VSU — from its authority,” the lawsuit claims.
“VSU’s Policy appointing a single Campus Minister to govern all Christian activities, and only Christian activities, at VSU violates Plaintiffs’ free exercise, establishment, expressive association, free speech, free assembly, and equal protection rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution.” The lawsuit quotes Wynn as telling the two groups that they were being merged into Campus Ministries “because you purport Jesus Christ and faith" and allegedly told them that any non-Christian religious groups that form at VSU in the future will not be placed under the ministry’s umbrella.
“The biggest answer is: it is for the betterment, it’s for the benefit of the university — now and going forward — that faith-based entities come under the advisement, governance, and influence of the campus minister and the faculty advisory board,” Wynn said, according to the