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Loyola University New Orleans must intervene after a second rejection of a Turning Point USA club, according to a national free speech group.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression sent a letter to the Jesuit Catholic university just prior to Christmas, asking for administrators to reverse decisions by the Student Government Association to deny official status to the club.
“The SGA’s decision came after alleged hostility on campus to the group’s formation,” Program Officer Charlotte Arneson wrote to university President Xavier Cole. She asked the university to respond by the second week of January to the letter.
Arneson cited student protests and said this suggests “SGA’s decision was influenced by outside factors, such as bias against TPUSA or other students opposed to the club.”
The university, Arneson wrote, must use “viewpoint-neutral criteria” in evaluating clubs.
She provided further commentary on this issue in an email to The College Fix.
“When a school has a commitment to free expression, whether under the First Amendment or through their own policy, their student government must—consistent with the school’s commitment—use viewpoint-neutral criteria when evaluating potential student organizations,” Arneson said.
“Allowing protests or potential hostility from other students to influence the decision-making process risks turning the student government vote into a popularity contest and endangers free expression for all students on campus,” she wrote further in her email.
FIRE also pointed out to the university that it promises free expression and it cannot allow the student government to violate this guarantee.
The free speech group also said mere opposition to a club cannot justify its denial, because “any religious or political stance taken by a recognized group on campus could be considered offensive or unwelcome to those who disagree with that group’s beliefs.”
The university has not provided further comment to The Fix about the situation.
The Fix contacted the university’s public affairs team multiple times via email and phone call in the past several weeks, but no one responded. The Student Government Association also has not responded to email and social media messages.
Turning Point USA has been trying since at least September of last year to get full approval, according to the student newspaper.
The student government first denied the club official status in October and then again in early December on appeal.
Some students spoke out against the organization, connecting their presence to ICE’s presence in the city.
“Considering ICE’s recent activity in New Orleans, this could put immigrant and international students at risk,” Miu Sims said at the December meeting, according to The Maroon.
“TPUSA poses a serious security threat to students and faculty,” Sims also said.
“Jazz studies senior Evs Alexander argued the group conflicted with Loyola’s values,” according to the student newspaper.
“This is not what Loyola stands for,” Alexander said. “There’s a difference between fundamentalist beliefs and Jesuit values.”
The Fix reached out to the Turning Point USA president, Anistin Murray, as well as the club’s account. Neither responded to multiple social media messages in the past few weeks.
However, Murray provided further comment to Fox News in late December.
“They said that, you know, it does make a lot of the students feel uncomfortable and that it will bring a lot of hate and negativity and all this disruption to the university, which I find quite sad because that’s not what an organization is meant to push,” she said.
“Just because people disagree with us does not mean that there needs to be uncivil discourse,” Murray told Fox News.
The club plans to find ways to work around the rejection to remain active on campus.
