Two weeks ago, 20 Saint Mary's students traveled to Washington, D.C. to participate in the annual March for Life — they each paid a small fee to ride a United Limo bus for 12 hours and paid for their own meals while in the capital city. Four other Saint Mary's students also made the trip to Washington that week to attend the Never Go Back pro-choice conference — they traveled by plane, the cost of which was paid for by the College in addition to the students' meals.

Saint Mary's homepage states that the school is "the nation's premier Catholic women's college." Does anyone see a problem here?

It is clear from the organization's Web page and the relevant advertising for the conference that the main purpose of the event was not the development of leadership skills, as some have claimed, but rather the furthering of the pro-choice cause. For a school that apparently claims some affiliation with the Catholic Church, funding such an activity as the Never Go Back conference seems deeply disturbing.

Saint Mary's Center for Women's InterCultural Leadership, which provided a grant for the conference travel costs, is a separate entity within the College with separate funding approval procedures.

But the overall picture still does not add up: Students who wished to attend a pro-life activity did not receive any financial support — although they never asked for it — while those who desired to attend a pro-choice event were funded in full.

I certainly don't mean to imply that students at Catholic schools should not be allowed to express their beliefs and disagree with what the Church teaches on a given issue. On the contrary, Catholic colleges must encourage open debate and free discussion on all sides of controversial issues. Yes, academic freedom is absolutely vital to the life of a college.

But when Saint Mary's chooses to fund a pro-choice event, it crosses a line. It no longer promotes academic discourse. It takes a position, and it stops the discussion. Some will be satisfied, others will be hurt.

Paying for students to attend a pro-choice conference while choosing not to offer the same level of support for a pro-life event sets a terrible precedent for Saint Mary's as a Catholic academic institution. Saint Mary's must foster open debate and encourage its students and faculty to openly express a wide variety of opinions. But the College is a Catholic institution and that should mean something.

Saint Mary's is both a Catholic and an academic organization — it should not prefer one identity over the other. The Catholic tradition is one of tolerance and love and it must be considered in a partnership with Saint Mary's academic mission.

Has Saint Mary's set itself down the slippery path of Boston College and Georgetown, where students joke that BC stands for "barely Catholic" and crosses are prohibited in the classrooms? Will Saint Mary's financially support the position of other students who may hold pro-capital punishment, anti-gay, anti-Semitic or racist views? The answer remains to be seen.

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