UCCtruths

Loyola University seems to be taking the high road when speakers running for office plan on speaking at the university. From the Loyola University's The Phoenix:

According to the new rules first proposed in April, on-campus groups may only invite "clearly partisan" speakers affiliated with an active political campaign to Loyola if they extend an equivalent invitation to all other "legally-qualified political candidates."

"The issue is fair access," said Phillip Hale, vice president of public affairs, at a recent meeting with representatives from politically-oriented student groups. Loyola's IRS status as a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, which carries with it specific
regulations, necessitated the tightened policy.

Federal law prohibits Loyola and all other nonprofits from "participating or intervening, directly or indirectly, in any political campaign," the policy says, and Hale said that the IRS often repeals violators' nonprofit status as punishment.

"[If] we're not tax exempt, we close our doors," Hale said.

Increasingly intense scrutiny of nonprofits by the IRS - not conservative pundit Ann Coulter's controversial appearance at Loyola in 2006 - motivated Loyola to adopt the policy, according to Hale.

In fact, the United Church of Christ, also a nonprofit organization, found itself at the center of an IRS crackdown when church member Sen. Barack Obama spoke at their national meeting after announcing his candidacy. If Loyola were to fail to provide equal access to all active candidates, it could face a similar investigation.

The caveat to all of this, of course, is that the IRS isn't enforcing this rule since they didn't find a "fair access" problem with Barak Obama being invited to the United Church of Christ's General Synod last year. The United Church of Christ disingenuously claimed that Obama was invited before he was a declared candidate... although most pundits predicted since 2004 that he would run.