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University of California Office of the President

Campus Life

 

Fees FAQ

Students and Student Affairs staff often have questions regarding the use of campus-based student fees. A portion of the fees generated from the student body are available for use by student governments and registered campus organizations. This FAQ page clarifies various issues about the use of fees, especially in regards to student governments and student activities.



Answers

Question 1. Can student governments and Registered Campus Organizations (RCOs) reserve campus facilities for the purpose of hosting candidates for political office and speakers advocating for or against a ballot initiative?

ANSWER: Yes, they can, consistent with the applicable systemwide policies (but please note that there are also campus implementing regulations controlling the reservation and use of such facilities by student governments and other student groups).

The systemwide policies are different for the two kinds of organizations:

For student governments, the applicable systemwide policy is Section 65.00 ("Sponsorship of Speakers") of the Policy on Student Governments which requires that, with respect to any particular such event, student governments "must make a good faith effort to invite a representative of the opposing campaign or campaigns to appear at the same time or, if this opportunity is declined, to appear at another time." Also see Section 64.00 of the same Policy, which states that "in furtherance of the University's purposes for student governments, the educational benefit provided to students by [the public policy-oriented activities of student governments] must outweigh any purpose of furthering a particular ideological or political viewpoint." That is, the burden falls on the student government as the event sponsor to undertake reasonable efforts to ensure that a balance of views is represented at the same event.

For Registered Campus Organizations, the applicable systemwide policy is Section 86.34 of the Policy on Compulsory Campus-Based Student Fees, which states that "compulsory campus-based student fees may be reallocated to pay for speakers sponsored by Registered Campus Organizations. Over time, such events should stimulate on-campus discussion and debate from a wide range of viewpoints on a variety of issues." There is thus no requirement for balance on the part of a particular RCO at a particular event that it funds or sponsors; rather, the burden falls on the campus to ensure that opportunities for such funding or sponsorship of similar events are provided to a wide variety of RCOs representing a wide variety of viewpoints over time.

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Queston 2. Can student governments use compulsory campus-based student fees to promote a candidate for political office or promote a "support" or "oppose" position on a ballot initiative (including the use of such fees for facility reservation fees, speakers' fees, security, posters, or buttons)?

ANSWER: No, they cannot.

Student governments are official units of the University (see Section 61.00 "Status" of the Policy on Student Governments). As such, they are subject (equally with all other units of the University) to applicable state law, which prohibits state entities from engaging in promotional activities for or against ballot propositions. The University's Office of the General Counsel has advised that this limitation applies equally to promoting particular candidates for public office. Informational activities in connection with ballot campaigns may be permissible under certain circumstances. See Section 66.00 "Participation in Non-University Political Campaigns" of the systemwide Policy on Student Governments. See also the document entitled "Institutional Advocacy-Legal Guidelines for UC Participating in Ballot Campaigns" for a full discussion of this issue. This is a difficult area of the law, and student governments are always advised to seek the advice of campus and/or systemwide legal counsel through the appropriate campus administrators before proceeding with particular programs and activities relating to state ballot campaigns and candidates for public office.

It should be noted that the above does not affect the right of student governments under University policy (Section 63.00 of the Policy on Student Governments) to take positions on public issues, including particular ballot propositions and particular candidates for public office, so long as the positions taken are not represented to be the positions of any other entity of the University. They also have the right to communicate those positions and their supporting rationales on an informational basis to University and governmental audiences (see Sections 64.01 and 64.02 of the same Policy).

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Question 3. Can RCOs use compulsory campus-based student fees to promote a candidate for political office or promote a "support" or "oppose" position on a ballot initiative (including the use of such fees for facility reservation fees, speakers' fees, security, posters, or buttons)?

Answer: Yes, RCOs are not official units of the University, and they are thus not bound by the prohibitions on the University against promotional campaign activities. Under University policy, RCOs are funded in part to "stimulate on-campus discussion and debate on a wide variety of issues from a variety of viewpoints" (See Section 86.20 "The University's Educational Purposes" of the Policy on Compulsory Campus-Based Student Fees).

For that reason, a wide variety of RCOs are funded without regard to their individual viewpoints. All of these RCOs are free to promote their individual views, which should assure that a wide variety of viewpoints are shared with the campus community. However, constraints outside University policy may be in operation, including the fact that individual RCOs (in particular those established as 501(c)(3) organizations) may be limited in the degree of political activity in which they can properly engage without endangering their tax-exempt status under federal law.

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Question 4. Can student governments and RCOs use compulsory campus-based student fees to promote student voter registration?

Answer: Yes, they can, but the rule is different for the two kinds of organizations:

For student governments, voter registration drives supported by compulsory campus-based student fees should be conducted on a non-partisan basis consistent with Section 64.00 of the systemwide Policy on Student Governments, which states that "in furtherance of the University's purposes for student governments, the education benefit provided to students by [the student government's public policy-oriented] activities must outweigh any purpose of furthering a particular ideological or political viewpoint."

For Registered Campus Organizations, voter registration drives may be conducted on either a non-partisan or partisan basis, consistent with the provision in Section 86.31 of the systemwide Policy on Compulsory Campus-Based Student Fees that events and activities sponsored by RCOs "need not avoid controversial political, religious, or ideological content, subject to the understanding that…campuses have a responsibility to assure an ongoing opportunity for the expression of a variety of viewpoints.

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Question 5. Can student governments and RCOs use compulsory campus-based student fees to host voter registration events where candidates for political office are speakers?

Answer: Yes, they can, but the rule is different for the two kinds of organizations:

For student governments, voter registration events where candidates for political office are speakers must be bi-partisan in nature consistent with Section 65.00 ("Sponsorship of Speakers") of the Policy on Student Governments, which provides that, for allocations from compulsory campus-based student fees by a student government "to sponsor a forum with speakers advocating for or against a candidate for a non-student-government office, or for or against an off-campus ballot proposition, the student government must make a good faith effort to invite a representative of the opposing campaign or campaigns to appear at the same time or, if this opportunity is declined, to appear at another time."

For Registered Campus Organizations, there is no requirement that any particular such event with sponsored speakers be bi-partisan in nature or necessarily present the opposing point of view, so long as the campus endeavors to ensure that there is a balance of viewpoints represented across many such events sponsored by competing such organizations over time. See Section 86.31 of the systemwide Policy on Compulsory Campus-based Student Fees, which provides that events and activities sponsored by RCOs "need not avoid controversial political, religious, or ideological content, subject to the understanding that…campuses have a responsibility to assure an ongoing opportunity for the expression of a variety of viewpoints." See also Section 86.34 of the same Policy, which provides that "compulsory campus-based student fees may be reallocated to pay for speakers sponsored by Registered Campus Organizations. Over time such events should stimulate on-campus discussion and debate from a wide range of viewpoints on a variety of issues."

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Question 6. Can candidates for political office who are invited to campus by student governments or RCOs engage in fund-raising activities in connection with those campus events?

Answer: The systemwide rule is different for the two kinds of organizations:

For student governments, the answer is no. This limitation on student governments is consistent with: (1) their status as official units of the University (see Section 61.00 of the Policy on Student Governments); (2) the requirement in Section 64.00 of the same Policy that "in furtherance of the University's purposes for student governments, the education benefit provided to students by [the student government's public policy-oriented] activities must outweigh any purpose of furthering a particular ideological or political viewpoint;" and (3) the further requirement in Section 65.00 ("Sponsorship of Speakers") that, "in the event that an allocation is made by a student government to sponsor a forum with speakers advocating for or against a candidate for a non-student-government office, or for or against an off-campus ballot proposition, the student government must make a good faith effort to invite a representative of the opposing campaign or campaigns to appear at the same time or, if this opportunity is declined, to appear at another time." A burden thus falls on student government to ensure that such events are bi-partisan and educational (as opposed to promotional) in their nature. Against this backdrop, fund-raising activities on the part of, or on behalf of, a particular candidate or ballot proposition at a student-government-sponsored event would not be appropriate, and should not be encouraged or promoted in any way by student government as the event's sponsor.

For Registered Campus Organizations, the answer is yes. [Please note, however, that individual campuses may have local implementing regulations in place that impose general limitations on on-campus non-commercial fund-raising activities. These would be enforced on a viewpoint-neutral basis, i.e., without regard to the content of a particular fund-raising event, and would be controlling in the case of any proposed political fund-raising activities.] RCOs are not official University units, and there is no legal or policy requirement that a political event with speakers sponsored or funded by an RCO must necessarily present the opposing point of view on the same platform, so long as the campus (as opposed to the individual RCO) endeavors to ensure that there is a balance of viewpoints represented across many such events sponsored by competing such organizations over time. Section 86.31 of the systemwide Policy on Compulsory Campus-Based Student Fees expressly states, for instance, that a particular event sponsored by an RCO funded from compulsory campus-based student fees allocated to that organization on a viewpoint-neutral basis "need not avoid controversial political, religious, or ideological content, subject to the understanding that…campuses have a responsibility to assure an ongoing opportunity for the expression of a variety of viewpoints." Section 86.34 of the same Policy further states that "compulsory campus-based student fees may be reallocated to pay for speakers sponsored by Registered Campus Organizations. Over time such events should stimulate on-campus discussion and debate from a wide range of viewpoints on a variety of issues." Against this backdrop, fund-raising for a particular candidate or ballot proposition at an RCO-sponsored event is permissible. Sponsoring RCOs must ensure, however, that there is no implied or actual University sponsorship associated with any such event.

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Question 7. Can compulsory campus-based student fees be "donated" to a political campaign or ballot initiative election effort by student governments or RCOs?

Answer: No, they cannot. Section 87.00 of the systemwide Policy on Compulsory Campus-Based Student Fees, which applies to both student governments and Registered Campus Organizations, provides that there are only three narrow circumstances where compulsory campus-based student fees (including the student government fee and funds originating from that fee re-allocated by student governments to Registered Campus Organizations) can be transferred outside the University: 1) to support basic membership by the student government or RCO in a non-University association or other organization; 2) in payment by a student government or RCO for basic goods and services necessary to its operation; and 3) when a direct educational benefit results to UC students commensurate with the magnitude of the proposed transfer (for example, to cover the cost of attendance by UC students at a non-University student conference). Otherwise transfers from compulsory campus-based student fees by student governments and Registered Campus Organizations to non-University entities are prohibited.

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