Virginia State University sued for forcing Christian groups under rule of single 'campus minister'
Two Christian student groups are suing Virginia State University (VSU), claiming the historically black school has discriminated against them by instituting a policy putting their clubs under the governance of a single university-employed campus minister despite doctrinal disagreements.
Women of Victory and Bethel Campus Fellowship filed a complaint against VSU last week in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Richmond Division, over an August policy change that they say strips some religious student groups of their registered status and requires them to be absorbed into a university entity called Campus Ministries.
Campus Ministries is overseen by a single campus minister, Thomas Wynn, and a board of advisers. According to the lawsuit, the board will be able to decide when the groups can hold events and invite guest speakers.
“Notably, the Policy explicitly exempts the Muslim Students Association and the VSU Community Faith Alliance — the only non-Christian religious organizations at VSU — from its authority,” the lawsuit claims.
“VSU’s Policy appointing a single Campus Minister to govern all Christian activities, and only Christian activities, at VSU violates Plaintiffs’ free exercise, establishment, expressive association, free speech, free assembly, and equal protection rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution.”
The lawsuit quotes Wynn as telling the two groups that they were being merged into Campus Ministries “because you purport Jesus Christ and faith" and allegedly told them that any non-Christian religious groups that form at VSU in the future will not be placed under the ministry’s umbrella.
“The biggest answer is: it is for the betterment, it’s for the benefit of the university — now and going forward — that faith-based entities come under the advisement, governance, and influence of the campus minister and the faculty advisory board,” Wynn said, according to the lawsuit.
The new policy authorizes the faculty advisers to "control the content and administration of religious events on campus." Plaintiffs contend that the new policy allows the university to have “governance and influence” on matters of religious faith and gives the Wynn "authority to determine what beliefs and practices are acceptable in the Christian faith."
"Despite strong disagreement with the Policy, Women of Victory has continued to hold weekly Bible studies — which Defendant Wynn oversees and attends, despite students’ requests for a female advisor," the lawsuit reads.
"Women of Victory is required to go through the Campus Minister to reserve space and plan events. Women of Victory members are required to inform the Campus Minister before holding any meetings on campus, even for informal hangouts, despite the fact that informal gatherings of Christian students are not proscribed under the Policy in writing."
The complaint notes that Women of Victory and Wynn have had past disagreements on "church doctrine."
"In April 2026, before the Policy took effect, Defendant Wynn attempted to physically halt and disrupt a religious 'deliverance' event hosted by Women of Victory because he personally disagreed with the subject matter of the event," the complaint reads. "Forcing Christian student organizations to submit to a single religious figure employed by a public university violates religious students’ constitutional rights."
The Christian Post reached out to VSU for comment but did not receive a response by press time.
Women of Victory and Bethel Campus Fellowship are represented by Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a prominent conservative legal group that has successfully argued First Amendment cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.
“VSU is brazenly singling out Christian clubs and treating them worse than student groups of other faiths. The Constitution prohibits such blatant discrimination,” Tyson Langhofer, senior counsel with ADF, said in a statement last week.
“The First Amendment clearly establishes the right of all student organizations to associate around shared beliefs. The students of Women of Victory and Bethel Campus Fellowship are right to stand up to university officials and hold them accountable for violating their fundamental rights.”
VSU traces its origins to 1882, when state lawmakers approved a charter to create the Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute, an African American school in Virginia.
The university took its current name in 1979. Notable alumni include sports commentator James Brown and actor James Avery of “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” fame.
