The Associated Students of Fort Lewis College board voted against instating a Turning Point USA chapter at the college in front of a packed room Wednesday.
The Vallecito room in FLC’s Student Union was filled wall-to-wall with students and community members during the tense four-hour meeting, where more than 30 students spoke in opposition of the measure. Around 15 additional attendees hoping to speak against the measure were unable to address the room due to time constraints.
Turning Point USA, a nonprofit organization that advocates for conservative politics on high school, college and university campuses, was founded in 2012 by political activist Charlie Kirk, who was shot and killed Sept. 10 on the Utah Valley University campus.
Turning Point USA says it has more than 800 chapters across American colleges and universities.
Several students became emotional during their speeches.
FLC senior Jonah Flynn – the main driving force behind pursuing a Turning Point chapter – pleaded his case several times during the meeting, including through a PowerPoint presentation that described what operation would look like, and a public question-and-answer session with attendees and board members.
Flynn said he wanted to bring a chapter to FLC in response to Kirk’s assassination.
He argued that a Turning Point chapter would be about “keeping the conversation going” and advancing conservative values, and wouldn’t pose a threat to marginalized students – a concern brought up by nearly every student who spoke in opposition of the group during the meeting.
Flynn said the group would pursue changing any gender neutral bathrooms on campus back to gendered bathrooms and hosting speaker and Gays Against Groomers Colorado chapter leader Rich Guggenheim – known for his vocal opposition to contemporary gender ideology and gender-affirming care – on campus on Transgender Day of Remembrance. He said the scheduling choice was a coincidence, not a targeted statement.
He said the group would be open to the idea of creating an FLC version of Turning Point’s Professor Watchlist, a database launched by Kirk and Turning Point that aims to “expose and document college professors who discriminate against conservative students and advance leftist propaganda in the classroom,” according to Turning Point’s website.
The watchlist has been criticized as targeting minority professors and endangering faculty.
Three others spoke in support of instating a Turning Point chapter, including a student and two community members. Fewer than 10 individuals spoke from a neutral standpoint.
Many of the three-minute speeches were delivered with emotion.
“Although, on an individual level, the people who are here representing Turning Point may not want my rights personally to be stripped away, we are all aware – painfully aware – of the harmful and violent and hateful remarks that have been made by its founder, Charlie Kirk,” said FLC senior Anya Snyder during her speech. “We know the rhetoric that he has put out against people in marginalized communities, and I don’t believe that having that conversation on campus will do any good at all.”
She said relief was the main emotion she felt when the decision was announced.
“I am insanely relieved,” Snyder told The Durango Herald. “I feel like our student body government really listened to the concerns that a majority of the student body had, which is a really nice feeling, especially in today’s political climate, where I feel like a lot of minority concerns are not being listened to at all. I feel like Fort Lewis is going to stay the safe space that all the queer people and minority groups on campus have come to.”
Junior Nolan Tucker was one of several students who spoke from a neutral stance.
In his speech, he advocated for open conversation across political lines.
“I think everybody should have a voice, and you can do that respectfully – have a conversation, agree to disagree, and we can still function as society,” Tucker told the Herald. “(It) doesn’t have to be so polarized. At the end of the day, most people want the same things. It's just, there are different ways of going about (getting there).”
Following a nearly four-hour public comment session and a 10-minute closed executive session, the seven senators on the board cast their ballots in front of the room to determine the fate of the proposed FLC Turning Point chapter. The decision to deny the student group request was announced by ASFLC President Asa Worthington.
Flynn told the Herald he was disappointed by the decision, calling it an “ideological choice.”
“It’s obvious that the club should exist,” he said. “They talked all about being unbiased and whatnot, then they reject it for ideological reasons, or maybe because they’re scared about some kind of pushback, or something like that. They have no idea what kind of pushback they’re going to get now. I mean, it’s clearly a violation of their own policies to reject (the group).”
Fort Lewis College responded to the decision in an official statement Thursday, saying that ASFLC reviews all new student organization proposals through the same peer-to-peer process, and that applicants are able to appeal decisions.
“As a public institution of higher education, Fort Lewis College … upholds the rights to free speech and expression for all members of our community, consistent with college policies and state and federal law,” the college said. “We encourage all students to continue engaging in dialogue that reflects our shared values of learning, respect and inclusion.”
Worthington told the Herald the decision reflected the people having spoken.
“I'm blessed to be able to have this opportunity to help properly conduct these things, as well as be able to be within the company of really smart, ethical, great people,” he said. “I stand by my Senate. I let the decision speak for itself.”
epond@durangoherald.com
