At least two students at Michigan State University filed suit against their former professor in federal court, alleging she forced them and fellow students to give money to her leftist political group.
Nathan Barbieri and Nolan Radomski allege university officials, including their former professor Amy Wisner, infringed on their First Amendment rights when Wisner required them and approximately 600 students to purchase a $99 membership for "The Rebellion Community," according to a report.
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The acquisition of a membership was part of Wisner's class requirements for the 2023 spring semester, the lawsuit reads.
Wisner was discovered by Barbieri and Radomski to be the creator and controller of the group, and they allege the instructor donated the estimated $60,000 she forced out of students to groups including Planned Parenthood, according to the lawsuit.
This action conflicts with the students' religious beliefs and values, the report noted.
"Defendant Wisner controlled The Rebellion Community and used the membership fees to finance her own political advocacy and to support external groups — including Planned Parenthood — that engage in political speech that is antithetical to the Plaintiffs' deeply held beliefs," the 88-page complaint reads.
Once students had paid for the group membership, they received access to an online portal that Barbieri and Radomski allege was redundant because MSU provided them with online course material at no extra charge.
Wisner maintains the money charged to students was used to cover costs relating to technology use, paying guest speakers, educators, and facilitators, according to the report.
"Your professor does not receive any financial compensation from your membership fees as that would be a conflict of interest," a disclosure mentioned in the suit reads.
Wisner posted to her Facebook page that membership fees to The Rebellion Community are donated to Planned Parenthood, the report noted.
"The Rebellion community is a safe place to coordinate our efforts to burn everything to the f***ing [ground]," the post read, according to the suit. "100% of membership fees are donated to Planned Parenthood."
Nearly all 1,157 members of Wisner's group can be accounted for as students in the instructor's business communication class, according to the report.
A separate allegation against Wisner suggests the instructor used money taken from students' membership fees to pay for a recreational vehicle she intended to take on a cross-country road trip with her children and pets.
After the allegations against Wisner were leveled, the instructor was placed on leave, and students were refunded for their membership fees, according to the report.
Membership in The Rebellion Community is no longer required for the course.
Although they received refunds, Barbieri and Radomski maintain Wisner still has their original money "to tour the country in an RV ... and engage in policy advocacy that [they] do not wish to support."
They want the instructor to refund them herself and detail how the funds were used.
"University professors can't force students to finance and support political advocacy groups that express messages they disagree with," Alliance Defending Freedom legal counsel Logan Spena said.
"Nathan and Nolan simply want to get a business degree without being compelled to pay membership fees that will be donated to Planned Parenthood or support speech that directly contradicts their religious beliefs."
The pair of students are not the first to condemn Wisner for her actions, the report noted.
"Amy Wisner simply is a scam artist," one student reportedly wrote in an April review on the Rate My Professor website.
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"She scammed her students into purchasing a subscription to her website the Rebellion, and put all our course content on it. It was $99. Fast forward a few weeks into the semester Amy Wisner is now fired despite what it says on her LinkedIn profile. We did get a refund from the university for the subscription lol."
Wisner is no longer employed by Michigan State University, and she maintains she was fired due to the fact that MSU "did not want me and my guest lecturers to teach diversity, equity, and inclusion to students in the core business communications class."