A Seventh-day Adventist college in Maryland is eligible to receive state government funding, a United States court ruled June 26.  The decision comes after an 11-year quest by Columbia Union College to gain funding under the Sellinger Program, a state program that distributes grants to private colleges in Maryland.

“Columbia Union College is pleased and satisfied with the results of the decision,” said Randal Wisbey, president of CUC, in a statement released June 28.

Columbia Union College cannot be excluded from the Sellinger Program solely because of its religious nature, said a three-member panel of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. By denying a grant only on the basis of religion ,“the government risks discriminating against a class of citizens solely because of faith,” the court said. 

Direct state funding of CUC would not violate the United States Constitution’s Establishment Clause “ecause state aid is allocated on a neutral basis to an institution of higher education which will not use the funds for any sectarian purpose . . .,” wrote Chief Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson.

CUC first applied for funds under the Sellinger Program in 1990. In 1992, state officials denied CUC’s application on the basis that CUC was “pervasively sectarian”—that the religious and secular purposes of the school were so intertwined that they could not be separated. Thus, the religious purpose of CUC would inevitably be advanced by any government funding, the state argued.

However, a district court ruled in August 2000 that CUC is not fundamentally different from the religious schools that currently receive aid under the program and so to deny CUC funding would violate the principle of equal protection under the law.

After examining the evidence, the district court said that the Adventist Church “exerted dominance over college affairs” and that hiring and admissions preferences were given to Adventist Church members.  But the court also said that the “primary goal and function of Columbia Union College is to provide a secular education even though it has a definite and strong secondary goal to teach with a ‘Christian vision.’”

In CUC’s June 28 statement, Wisbey reaffirmed the college’s commitment to its Statement of Community Ethos, saying, “[W]e value faith in God, we celebrate the goodness of creation, the dignity of diverse peoples and the possibility of human transformation.  Through worship and shared life, we uphold spiritual integrity and are committed to achieving it.”