Washington State

Office of the Attorney General

Attorney General

Bob Ferguson

AGO 1979 NO. 3 >

(1) The facilities of a state college or university may be used for a candidates' forum to which candidates for elective office would be invited on a nondiscriminatory basis to appear on campus to present their views and respond to questions from the audience, which forum would be sponsored by the student body or some other campus group and would involve no charge to the candidates for attendance or for use of the facilities.  (2) The facilities of a state college or university may be used for the conduct of a political party convention on campus provided that the political party involved actually rents the facilities from the college pursuant to a legitimate lease or rental agreement.  (3) A state college or university may allow student campus groups to sponsor meetings involving organizations such as the "Crab Shell Alliance" group opposing the Trident Base at Bangor and the "Greenpeace" group opposing nuclear power plants, utilizing the public facilities at the college as a forum for such organizations to espouse their beliefs.