DURANGO—The Fort Lewis College student government last Friday backpedaled on a prior decision blocking formation of a Turning Point USA (TPUSA) chapter on campus. The conservative group is now a registered student organization after a swift backlash hit the campus over the original rejection.
Fort Lewis College is a four-year, public liberal arts college in Durango with a campus population of around 3,500 students.
TPUSA was founded by Charlie Kirk, who was publicly assassinated at Utah Valley University on his American Comeback tour in early September. The national organization has chapters in several Colorado colleges and high schools with the goal to empower “the next generation with the tools and knowledge to defend and promote conservative values on campuses across the country,” according to their website.
The rejection
Inspired by Kirk’s legacy, Fort Lewis College senior, Jonah Flynn, proposed the school chapter on a campus and town that is predominantly left-of-center.
“When Charlie was killed, I was just devastated,” Flynn told Complete Colorado, “So I just thought this is a way that I could do my part.”
After the group held its first open dialogue on campus event called “Debate a Conservative,” the student government announced an open meeting on Oct. 29 to vote on officially recognizing TPUSA on campus.
Flynn said hundreds of people attended with nearly 50 people speaking on the “dangers” TPUSA would bring to campus. The Associated Students of Fort Lewis College voted to reject the application.
“Many of our morals and interests must be pushed to the side,” said student body president Asa Worthington. “The safety of our student body and the FLC community has always been and always will be ASFLC’s top priority.”
Prior to the vote, a petition circulated accusing TPUSA of causing harm to the student body, claiming the LGBTQ and ethnic communities on campus felt unsafe. The petition garnered 487 signatures.
Reversing course
After the rejection, a counter petition backing the TPUSA chapter circulated, gaining 1,380 signatures and calling out the college for hypocrisy over its proclaimed values.
“For an institution that prides itself on its reverence for diversity and inclusion in the academic space, Fort Lewis College has failed to uphold their own values and commitments by restricting conservative voices on campus,” the petition reads, in part.
Flynn filed an appeal to the student court, and soon after the rejection the college received a letter from the Colorado House Republicans urging them to approve the chapter.
The student government then called a sudden emergency meeting the following day, Nov. 7.
Flynn said only 20 people were allowed in, and after a brief dialogue, the student government unanimously approved the chapter, reversing their previous decision.
“I think the administration came and stepped in,” Flynn said, mentioning the House GOP letter, “They got a ton of pressure from the above, the administration, and the president.”
TPUSA in high schools
Opposition to Turning Point goes beyond college campuses. Just weeks after a TPUSA member at CU Boulder was assaulted with a hockey stick, A pair of Eagle County high schools, Battle Mountain and Eagle Valley, received community backlash after the formation of TPUSA high school chapters.
“Vail Moms Facebook Group,” a private group with over 9,000 members, posted the clubs’ first meeting details on their page, sparking massive debate.
A petition titled, “Stop Eagle Valley High School from hosting Turning Point USA group” was circulated around the time the post was made.
The petition attacks TPUSA saying it is “infiltrating high schools” as its members “routinely engage in racist, homophobic, and sexist hate speech on college campuses across America.”
Despite their efforts, the school district allowed the club start-ups, referencing the Equal Access Act of 1984, which bars publicly funded schools from discriminating against student clubs based on political, religious, or philosophical reasons.
“The crazy backlash and violence against Colorado Turning Point people is not a reflection of Turning Point or any of the values we believe in, it’s a reflection of how far left the culture is in Colorado,” Flynn concluded, “It’s just another reason why we need to have the Turning Point clubs.”
