In a 16-10 vote, Santa Clara University’s student senate rejected to give a Turning Point USA chapter club recognition last Thursday. According to The College Fix, much of the opposition against TPUSA came from students associated with the university’s Multicultural Center. One of the Multicultural Center’s representatives stated the following about why they opposed the group:
[T]his organization, nationally and on this campus, is against our ideals as a university with a Jesuit philosophy and more than anything it is against our humanity.
Part of the controversy surrounding TPUSA related to students’ concerns that it would invite conservative speakers to campus, particularly Breitbart News editor Milo Yiannapoulos, as well as expressing concerns about the national organization’s controversial professor watch list.
Despite the chapter president’s continuous insistence that it had no intention of inviting Yiannapoulos, the student senate did not believe that the club deserved to be recognized. One senator even suggested that if the club had changed its name to something like the “Free Trade Club” instead of associating with TPUSA’s national branch, then it would have considered voting in favor of recognition.
Turning Point USA, founded by Charlie Kirk in 2012, is a grassroots organization that teaches college students about free-market capitalism, limited government, and fiscal responsibility.
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