Students from low-income families who attend, or want to attend, a faith-based college or university in the state of California (though other states are sure to follow) may have their eligibility to receive Cal Grants revoked if proposed legislation—Senate Bill 1146 (SB 1146) —passes California’s state legislature.
According to a letter by Dr. Michael McLean, president of Thomas Aquinas College in southern California, “California SB 1146 would require that all colleges and universities—religious and secular—provide housing for “transgendered students” in dormitories of their choice, regardless of their biological gender. In other words, if SB 1146 were to pass, Thomas Aquinas College would be required to house a biological male in a female residence hall (and vice-versa), if so requested, in contradiction to our long-time policy that there be no dorm visitation by members of the opposite sex.”
“Should SB 1146 pass,” Dr. McLean further explains, “Thomas Aquinas College students from low-income families who are otherwise eligible for Cal Grants would be rendered ineligible for this assistance simply because they have chosen to attend a religious college whose rules of residence reflect the moral teachings of the Catholic Church. While purporting to eliminate discrimination, SB 1146 would actually result in its own form of discrimination, penalizing young people of faith and limiting their ability to attend the college of their choice.”
Thomas Aquinas College is one of many colleges in California that oppose this legislation. These institutions of higher education are literally in a battle for religious liberty and for the free exercise of religion guaranteed to us under the First Amendment, as Dr. McLean notes.
But the issue is broader than California. As a colleague puts it, “as California goes, so eventually goes the rest of the nation.” No question California’s SB 1146 is a battle cry for Catholics and persons of any faith, nationwide.
California’s Assembly Appropriations Committee will vote on SB 1146 on Thursday, August 11, 2016. The bill will then go to the Assembly floor for deliberation and a vote sometime before the last day of this legislative session, which is August 30.
Dr. McLean has asked alumni and friends of the College (and any person of Faith) to join with the Thomas Aquinas College community in prayer by reciting the Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel each day, as college students do after each Mass offered in Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity Chapel.
For more information, and to contact members of the Appropriations Committee any other legislators, go to www.Stop1146.com