InterVarsity Christian Fellowship v. SUNY Broome Community College

A Christian community open to everyone 

InterVarsity Christian Fellowship is a nationwide Christian campus ministry serving more than 60,000 students and faculty through over 1,000 chapters at colleges and universities. Today, InterVarsity is active on more than 700 campuses nationwide, including more than 40 across New York. 

InterVarsity chapters give students a place to study the Bible, pray, worship, build friendships, and learn about and live out their Christian faith. Everyone is welcome: students of any faith or no faith can participate and become members. But InterVarsity asks the students who lead its ministry to be Christians. That is because these students serve as their chapter’s religious leaders. They lead Bible studies, prayer, worship, and religious teaching, minister to their peers, and represent InterVarsity’s Christian faith on campus. 

A new InterVarsity chapter at SUNY Broome 

For over 50 years, InterVarsity has served students across New York, including on campuses throughout the SUNY system. In April 2024, while praying together at SUNY Broome, InterVarsity ministers and volunteers felt called by God to start a chapter there. A volunteer student leader began a Bible study with SUNY Broome students. The group grew to around a dozen students and became the foundation for InterVarsity Broome. 

As the chapter took shape, students sought official recognition from the college, which is available to dozens of other student groups such as the Dungeons & Dragons Club, the Backpacking Club, and the Hornets Chess Club.  

Recognition is important for many reasons, including because it allows InterVarsity to invite all students to join its group at the annual club fair, advertise its events via the school’s student club webpage, reserve regular meeting space, and have access to funding. Official recognition is especially important at a community college like SUNY Broome, where most students commute and are less likely to be hanging out on campus and connecting with clubs. So a recognized chapter has a huge advantage with reliable access to resources that help students gather, welcome others, and build a lasting community. Without recognition, having a healthy club is essentially impossible, especially at a transitory commuter campus like SUNY Broome. 

But when InterVarsity’s application for official recognition made clear that its student leaders are asked to share its Christian faith, SUNY Broome said no. The college said InterVarsity could have religious beliefs—but could not require the students leading its ministry to actually believe them. 

SUNY Broome shuts InterVarsity out 

InterVarsity repeatedly asked SUNY Broome to reconsider and pointed to federal court cases around the country—including two in favor of InterVarsity—ruling that religious student groups can have religious leaders. But the college refused to budge. Now, with a new school year quickly approaching, InterVarsity faces a stark choice: give up its requirement that Christian leaders share the faith they teach, or give up the rights that other student groups enjoy and that are necessary to have a healthy club.  

Becket filed suit on August 21, 2026, asking the court to protect InterVarsity’s right to choose its own religious leaders and have a place on campus. 

Importance to religious liberty: 

• Education: Students do not forfeit their First Amendment rights to freedom of speech, freedom of religious exercise, and freedom of association when studying at a public school. 
• Religious Communities: Religious student groups deserve the same access and support as other student organizations. Public schools cannot single them out for worse treatment simply because they are religious.