Campus Conservative Group Rejected Because It Makes Liberal Students Feel ‘Unsafe’

The student senate at Santa Clara University rejected a petition to form a campus chapter of Turning Points USA, a conservative activism group, because opponents of the group complained that its presence would make them feel “unsafe” — and because of the “mood” on campus since Donald Trump was elected president.

A full-time school employee also primed Santa Clara student senators with a lengthy PowerPoint presentation associating Turning Points USA with vile, fringe white supremacist groups.

The rejection occurred on Thursday night during a meeting of the Associated Student Government at the Jesuit bastion in the thick of Silicon Valley.

The Feb. 2 student senate meeting generated a standing-room-only crowd.

The petitioners gave a short presentation about their desire to form a campus chapter of Turning Point USA, a national student activist group which endorses “fiscal responsibility, free markets, and limited government.”

Then, for roughly an hour, a group of about 50 students — and also a smattering of school employees — spoke about how they adamantly oppose allowing a few students to form a conservative-oriented campus organization.

“It was a lot of repetitive stuff,” Caleb Alleva, one of the Turning Points USA petitioners, told The Daily Caller.

Opponents of the group insisted that a group promoting free trade and limited government on campus would make them feel “unsafe,” Alleva told TheDC.

“They were saying they were in danger but they couldn’t cite any facts,” the junior explained.

“A lot of them are lying about being afraid or they are genuinely in fear because of this false sense of danger promulgated by the media that anyone who is vaguely conservative is a Nazi or a white supremacist,” Alleva said.

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“I believe what happened is they were told Turning Points USA is a white supremacy organization,” Alleva said.

The crowd opposing a Turning Points USA chapter on the Santa Clara campus made an especially big deal about Yiannopoulos, an openly gay Breitbart News editor and Donald Trump supporter.

“They kept trying to lump us together with Milo,” Alleva said.

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In the end, the 26 student senators present voted 16 to 10 to deny the Turning Points USA campus charter.

The students and staffers who objected to the Santa Clara Turning Points USA chapter “primarily came from” the MultiCultural Center and the Santa Clara Community Action Program, two campus groups “with university funding and vast university resources,” Warne noted.

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Among the impressively large number of student groups which already exist at Santa Clara are Her Campus Santa Clara, HeForShe at Santa Clara University, SCU Vagina Monologues and Together for Ladies of Color. There’s also the Santa Clara Harry Potter Club, the Super Smash Bros Club and the Hipnotik Hip-hop Dance Group.

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