Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Love Saxa Addresses University Misappropriated Donations

Pro-traditional marriage student group Love Saxa has taken legal action in response to a series of allegedly misappropriated external donations intended for the club that were deposited into the accounts of other student groups.

Love Saxa wrote in a Jan. 27 Facebook post that one of its donors had been informed that a recent $50 donation had mistakenly ended up in the account for the LGBTQ Resource Center. Love Saxa asked its donors to check on the status of their donations, and wrote that members of the group would investigate the nature of the mistake.

LOVE SAXA FACEBOOK A Jan. 27 Love Saxa Facebook post called on donors to check the status of their donations with the university.

“We will ensure that Georgetown respects donor intent by following up on each donation,” Love Saxa wrote.

Since the post, Love Saxa has sought legal counsel from the Alliance Defending Freedom.

In a letter to University President John J. DeGioia on Feb. 2, Tyson Langhofer, director of ADF’s Center for Academic Freedom, wrote that a $100 donation for Love Saxa was also misplaced into the account of the Saxatones, and that a $250 donation deposited by Amelia Irvine (COL ’20), Love Saxa’s president, also failed to appear in Love Saxa’s account.

Langhofer also wrote that Irvine had been told by a student during a Georgetown student activities fundraising phonathon that Love Saxa was “making bank,” but has yet to receive any donations from the event.

Love Saxa and ADF contend that the misallocation of the donations aligns with a larger trend of abuse from the university, beginning with the Student Activities Commission hearing in November to determine whether the group should maintain its status as a recognized group on campus.

The university immediately began the process of correcting the misplacement of these donations, according to Rachel Pugh, Georgetown’s senior director for strategic communications.

The misplacement of the donations was a mistake on the university’s part because of the way donations are processed, Pugh said.

“When the university receives a gift designated by donor for a student group with access to benefits, the gifts are allocated with a designated work tag that ensures they reach the intended recipient.” Pugh wrote in an email to The Hoya. “Because a Fall 2017 gift was the first donation of its kind to Love Saxa, no established path existed.”

Love Saxa and its legal representatives from the ADF’s Center for Academic Freedom, however, accused the university of intentional mistreatment of Love Saxa’s funding, saying donations had been placed into the accounts of the LGBTQ Resource Center and the Saxatones, which has been associated with the Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League.

“Georgetown officials have funneled money intended for Love Saxa to its ideological opponents and those who partner with them,” Langhofer wrote. “Of course, this has happened immediately after the recognition controversy, suggesting that Georgetown officials have found a more secretive way of expressing their animosity towards Love Saxa and of punishing the group for its traditional views.”

Travis Barham, an ADF attorney representing Love Saxa, said these incidents are punishment directed at the student group.

“The university should not be punishing students for their religious or political views, whether that punishment takes the form of a weekslong investigation into trying to decide whether or not a student group can continue to exist, or whether that mistreatment takes the form of misdirecting donations and sending them to groups of ideological opponents,” Barhan said.

Multiple students filed a petition in October to have Love Saxa stripped of its university funding because of its anti-same sex marriage stance, which they claimed violated the Division of Student Affairs’ Student Organization Standards. In November, the Student Activities Committee voted 8-4 to allow Love Saxa to retain its funding.

Langhofer also pointed to an editorial from The Hoya’s editorial board as evidence of Love Saxa’s continued mistreatment at Georgetown.

Love Saxa and ADF demanded the university make recompense, requesting an official response by Feb. 9.

Although the university has not yet reached out to ADF, Pugh said Love Saxa has been contacted by the university, and the funds are currently being redeposited into the proper accounts.

While Barham acknowledges the return of the donations as a step in the right direction, he says the ADF and Love Saxa will not be satisfied until the university has done more.

“Frankly, Georgetown’s actions need to go further. They need to thoroughly investigate what led to this. They need to provide us documentation and accounting of what’s been donated to Love Saxa, and then we need to know that officials are being held responsible,” Barham said.

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  • D

    DRFeb 8, 2018 at 12:16 pm

    How are they being obnoxious or divisive? Alumni made donations to the group and the administration diverted the money elsewhere. Love Saxa is justified in demanding accountability. The university needs to allow a full investigation to ensure that this type of fraud is not widespread, or very few donors will trust them with their money again.

    Reply
    • M

      MTJun 6, 2019 at 1:46 pm

      So sad that Catholic views cannot be practiced at a Catholic University and that the existence of Love Saxa was even questioned as a group. Other groups that hold beliefs that more conservative students or God forbid, practicing Catholic students don’t believe in are allowed to exist with loud voices on campus and express their views with no resistance. I am appalled that liberal students who are supposed to be all inclusive and so open minded and have so much presence on campus and such loud voices cannot tolerate any opposing views to their own. Communism is only accepting of one voice and one view and shuts down freedom of speech. Our country was founded on this freedom of ideas and speech and tolerance of differences. If you shut down opposing views to your own you risk the same happening to your views when the opposing group is in power. There are good people on both sides that just have different ideas about how to live and how to treat life. You can agree to disagree respectfully and Georgetown university administrators and adults should promote and teach these young students the tenants of kindness, love and tolerance to all groups and all ideas.

      Reply
  • J

    Jack the BullfrogFeb 6, 2018 at 2:36 pm

    Snowflakes

    Reply
  • S

    SFS seniorFeb 6, 2018 at 1:53 am

    I find it funny that this club is supposedly all about love and yet the only thing it has been is obnoxious, insufferable, and divisive. They call gay students- they’re fellow Hoyas— sinful and disordered, they get favorable coverage from Breitbart and Russia Today, and now they solicit outside help for an attack on the administration, which the university will have to defend at expense of funds that could better be used elsewhere.

    This club is a nightmare. No wonder they’re so unwelcome on campus.

    Reply
    • J

      Jane HoyaFeb 7, 2018 at 12:00 am

      * their

      Reply
    • J

      Jane HoyaFeb 7, 2018 at 12:01 am

      *their

      Reply