The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression told the Catholic University of America that it cannot require its Students Supporting Israel chapter to include opposing viewpoints as a condition for hosting two proposed campus speaker events.
According to a March 18 letter, the private university in Washington, D.C., denied the group’s requests to host an event featuring U.S. Rep. Randy Fine (R-Fla.) on rising antisemitism, particularly on college campuses, and another with Israel Defense Forces Col. (res.) Dany Tirza, described as a chief architect of Israel’s security fence in Judea and Samaria. School administrators cited the university’s “balanced presentation” policy and told the group it could resubmit proposals that included speakers representing additional perspectives.
Jessie Appleby, a program counsel at FIRE, told JNS that applying a balance requirement to an event focused on antisemitism “at best, demonstrates the absurdity of such a requirement.”
“What opposite view is the university looking for the student group to present? I mean, is it supposed to be a pro-antisemitism view?” she said. “In general, a balanced presentation requirement would be impermissible under any university’s commitment to free speech—assuming they’ve made one, as Catholic University has—because it alters the expressive content of the event.”
FIRE argued in its letter that although Catholic University is a private institution, it is “legally and morally bound to adhere to the institutional commitments it has voluntarily made to protect students’ freedom of speech.” (JNS sought comment from the university.)
“Students Supporting Israel should not be forced to, for example, present anti-Israel views as a requirement of being able to host pro-Israel views,” Appleby told JNS. “They can certainly bring in speakers with anti-Israel views if they wish, but the university cannot force them to host views or speakers that they’re opposed to.”
The letter also states that past campus events suggest that the university “may be selectively and pretextually applying” the policy to the pro-Israel group. Appleby told JNS that FIRE has not determined whether the university has enforced the balance requirement on other student organizations.
“We included in our letter in a footnote a long list of events just from the past couple years where the speakers or the events very much presented one view without including the other side,” she said.
The footnote includes events from the College Democrats and College Republicans, as well as a “What is Genocide?” event featuring Martin Shaw, a sociologist and public speaker who has repeatedly accused Israel of genocide in Gaza.
The letter asks the university to respond by April 1 to confirm approval of the chapter’s event requests.
Felipe Avila, president of the campus Students Supporting Israel chapter, said the administration’s position amounts to “clear institutional overreach.”
“We call on the university to honor its own free-speech commitments and afford Students Supporting Israel the same expressive rights as every other group on campus,” he told JNS.
