Contrary to popular belief, the fourth time is apparently the charm — at least when it comes to having your free speech rights respected at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). The school’s prospective Students for Life of America (SFLA) group is looking forward to finally having official campus status after being wrongfully denied three times by their Student Senate. Now, after a much-needed intervention from SFLA’s legal counsel, it appears the pro-life students will at last have a voice in the 2023 Fall Semester. Here’s what happened: 

In an earlier blog, SFLA student leader Jonathon Kreinberg explained that his group had been trying to gain official approval from the school — via the Student Senate — since 2021. However, despite carefully following the application rules, his group was given the Apostle Peter treatment and unfairly denied three different times by their peers. 

Kreinberg described the situation as “long and tiresome.”

He stated, “Many of those who have helped carry the torch for this group have graduated and moved away. Even so, several new, passionate people have joined, and we are confident that the movement will live on despite the resistance… It is clear that some higher power at NJIT is at work against us stretching out the approval process in the hopes our movement will die organically. The obscurity of this process has kept us in the shadows for too long, and we cannot allow this mess to continue.” 

To regain their First Amendment rights, Kreinberg and his group reached out to SFLA’s legal counsel who worked with them to create a demand letter for the school, detailing their complaints and expectations. And from our communication with the school, it appears their pro-life group will finally be free from this discrimination in the fall. 

The NJIT legal team responded to the demand letter, stating, “The Students For Life organization will be invited to present the organization at the first Student Senate meeting of the semester and a re-vote will take place…The Student Senate will be instructed that their vote must be based on the defined criteria set forth in the student organization recognition process.” 

As Kreinberg’s group has always met this criterion, there shouldn’t be a problem this time with their approval as the school administration is finally looking over the shoulder of the biased Student Senate. Just like an appellate court recently held in our Washington D.C. free speech case, viewpoint discrimination should never be tolerated, and we are thankful the administration is finally providing the proper oversight to fix this problem.

Situations like these clearly show why you should contact SFLA’s legal counsel at [email protected] if your First Amendment rights are being violated — because we can help restore them. Sometimes, your pleas for unbiased treatment on campus fall on deaf ears as your school administration needs to be reminded that they’re not above the Constitution. A scary-looking legal letter often does the trick…as evidenced by this partial win at NJIT. 

We look forward to a full victory shortly after the September 6, 2023 vote. 

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Students for Life of America (SFLA) group on campus has officially been recognized and approved by their school. Victory!

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