Student-clubs measure receives nod from House

The House gave final approval to a compromise student-clubs bill Monday, ending a back-and-forth journey for the controversial measure that would allow schools to ban gay-straight alliances.

After undergoing a number of forms, lawmakers settled on a version that supporters are happy with and opponents say they can live with.

Under the new version of HB236, any club would need a faculty sponsor, and if the club could not find one, the club could not form. That was a change from the Senate's version of the bill, which would have required the school to find the club's faculty sponsors.

The bill would also require parental consent for students to join non-curricular clubs and allow schools to deny a club application if leaders thought it necessary to "protect the physical, emotional and moral well-being of students."

The clubs would need to file their applications "in a reasonable amount of time," instead of by an Oct. 15 deadline listed in the Senate bill and students would not be required to submit bylaws and a constitution as in the original measure.

Earlier this month the measure was watered down by the House, to merely require parental consent, but then restored by the Senate.

That Senate bill was initially accepted by the House but later sent back to the Senate with a request that senators recede from their amendments. When they did not recede, the bill went to conference committee and the Senate approved the committee's proposal last week while the House approved of the compromise measure 48-23.

It will now be after the signature of Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., who has not stated publicly whether he would veto the bill.