College Republicans Under Fire for Hosting Conservative Speakers at Columbia

College Republicans are now under investigation by the Student Conduct Office at Columbia University after the student government voted Sunday night to report them for discrimination and harassment.

The matter in dispute is a series of talks organized by the group, Columbia University College Republicans (CUCR), which according to some includes speakers who promote hatred against people of color and other minorities.

The Columbia University Black Students’ Organization (BSO) targeted the Republican group with a petition, demanding they be defunded and derecognized as a legitimate organization and that their funding is redistributed to student groups “who are targets of this hateful ideology” — they cite self-identified Muslim, women and trans groups, among others.

BSO claimed recent speakers Mike Cernovich and Tommy Robinson “pose a literal threat” to them.

Instead of defunding, the Columbia College Student Council passed a resolution to file a discrimination and harassment report against CUCR, citing the group’s invitation of Cernovich and Robinson.

College Republicans president Aristotle Boosalis told Campus Reform it was like being investigated for a “thought crime,” adding it’s “a direct attack on our existence . . . because we think differently.”

It’s unclear where the investigation stands, but Boosalis believes the claims will be dropped─like previous ones have─because no rule has been violated.

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News of the investigation came as the Columbia Daily Spectator reported that Columbia Executive VP for University Life, Suzanne Goldberg, allegedly dropped investigations against students who disrupted Robinson’s Skyped-in speech weeks before.

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More than 100 faculty members signed a letter this week condemning the administration’s disciplinary approach to students’ right to protest.

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