Lawsuit filed against a CSU campus over promotion of Prop 30

The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn. has filed a lawsuit claiming that an email by a campus administrator improperly used public resources (the email system) to promote Prop 30, the governor’s tax initiative which has been endorsed by the UC Regents.  The Regents live streamed their endorsement during a regular meeting using UC facilities.  So why a particular CSU campus is the target of the lawsuit is unclear.

The offending email is not reproduced in its entirety in the lawsuit but is summarized as follows:

The communication expresses and solicits support for Proposition 30.  The email is addressed “Dear Students,” and solicits them to “work together to pass Prop 30” in order to spare State funding for CSU.  The solicitation is coupled with both a threat that, “If Prop. 30 does not pass … CSU students will face higher fees [and] fewer classes,” and with an inducement that, “If we work together to pass Prop 30 … students will get a $498 tuition refund.”  The email closes with a solicitation to “share this information with your family [presumably because many parents pay their children’s tuition] and friends and encourage them to vote their support for the CSU System this November.”  The email is electronically signed “Dr. Ernest Stromberg, Professor, Director Division of Humanities and Communication, 100 Campus Center, CSU Monterey Bay.”

You can find the text of the lawsuit at http://hjta.org/pdf/Cal_State_Lawsuit.pdf.

One suspects that the defense that would be raised against this claim is that the tuition, etc., assertions are facts.  In any event, I would be surprised if anything really happens as a result of this filing before Election Day.  Indeed, early mail voting has already begun. But the suit may get some PR for opponents of Prop 30.

In any event, CSU seems not to be shy about political activity.  It even grades legislators and there is no grade inflation.  No one seems get an A.  Only a few even get a B+.  Far from it:
https://www.calstate.edu/air/documents/Legislative-Scorecard.pdf

And at UCLA, during a John & Ken show report on Gov. Brown’s visit to UCLA on Oct. 16 to plug Prop 30, students opposing Prop 30 reported hearing no pro-Prop 30 promotions in classes despite rumors to the contrary.  The full report runs about 5 minutes.  You can hear what the students said toward the tail end of the report:

UPDATE: According to a TV news report, the legal folks at CSU agree that the email that was the target of the lawsuit went too far towards advocacy:

The legal point comes around the 1:50 minute mark in the above video.  (You may have to watch an ad before the video starts.)  But below is a screenshot of the CSU legal conclusion:

More UPDATE: The LA Times ran an online story about a CSU student journalist who ran into obstacles in trying to get hold of an email via a public records act request from the CSU chancellor cautioning the faculty union and faculty not to use class time to promote Prop 30:
The LA Times story is at
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/10/student-reporter-and-cal-state-spar-over-public-record-and-20-cents.html

Eventually, the student got the email from another source and wrote the article:
http://mustangdaily.net/csucalls-for-less-in-class-campagining/