79-07-B1
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Grove City College[edit]
Transcript[edit]If Paul Revere did his midnight ride today he'd have to gallop through more than every Middlesex town and his warning would be, "The regulators are coming". Another college has taken up arms to repel the regulators, joining Brigham Young University and Hillsdale College who have already taken the federal Leviathan to court. A small liberal arts college in the hills of western Pennsylvania, Grove City College, has challenged H.E.W. on a matter of principle. The Department of Health, Education and Welfare has sent or is sending to every college and university in the land, a form to be filled out acknowledging (or perhaps proving is a better word) that they are in compliance with Title Nine of the Education Amendments of 1972. Title Nine bans discrimination against women in hiring. Now let me hasten to say Grove City College is not practicing discrimination. In fact the first judge hearing this case said, "there was not the slightest hint of any failure to comply with Title Nine save the refusal to submit an executed assurance of compliance. This refusal," he added; "is obviously a matter of conscience and belief." The President of Grove City College has stated his belief in women's rights and that the college supported these rights as a matter of conscience. You see, Grove City College takes no federal funds whatsoever. It is fiercely independent and feels that signing the H.E.W . form would be an acceptance of H.E.W. jurisdiction over a school that doesn't take a penny of government money. H.E.W. on the other hand has ruled that even though a college takes no federal funds itself, if even one student is getting federal aid through a loan or the G.I. Bill, for example, the college or university is subject to H.E.W. regulations. In 1974, Bob Jones University in South Carolina refused to sign a compliance from under Title Six of the Civil Rights Act, the grounds being that the university took no federal funds. There were students there on the G.I. Bill so the government in retaliation stopped payments to those students. The government feels this established a precedent which will help it in the Grove City College case. The college and four of its students on the other hand have filed a complaint against H.E.W. alleging that the government has exceeded its constitutional authority. Once again a David has taken up his sling against Goliath and all of us should be on the side of David if we value our freedom . Here is a plain ca se of law being created by a government agency instead of by the Congress. Aid given to a student is a matter between that individual and the agency granting the aid. It should not confer upon the agency power to regulate the school chosen by the student any more than a bank could impose on a college because it had loaned money to a student. President John D. Phillips of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities has correctly called this case, "a lightning rod to raise the general question of the limits of federal control." This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening. |
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