
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, August 21, 1995                   TAG: 9508210120
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE                                LENGTH: Short

UVA MEETS OVER FUNDING POLICY

The University of Virginia Board of Visitors will meet today to change its policy for funding student groups, a move prompted by a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

The court ruled in June that the university acted unconstitutionally when it refused to give students money in 1990 to publish Wide Awake, a Christian news and opinion magazine.

``Public universities that have comparable policies will be following very closely what UVa does,'' said Robert M. O'Neil, a former president of the university and now director of the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression in Charlottesville.

The board's task will be a tricky one. The justices' 5-4 decision said the university could not discriminate against a religious viewpoint when doling out money from a student activity fund. But the court did not specify any direct action to be taken by the university.

The university's 25-year-old funding guidelines forbid use of the money in the activity fund - to which every student contributes $28 yearly - for religious, political or social groups on campus.

University Rector Hovey S. Dabney said among the options the board will consider are: declaring all three categories of groups eligible for subsidies, changing only the status of religious organizations, or letting students decide for themselves how they want their activity fees used.

- Associated Press

by CNB