A Turning Point for NCC?

NCC may be getting a new group on campus.

Conservative politics typically exist as a minority group on college campuses. Hope Flynn, ’22, is looking to change that.

Turning Point USA is a national nonprofit — founded in 2012 by then-19-year-old Illinoisan Charlie Kirk — which sponsors conservative high school and college chapters. The TPUSA website states that their mission is “to identify, educate, train and organize students to promote the principles of fiscal responsibility, free markets and limited government.”

As well as sponsoring individual student groups, TPUSA organizes conventions across the country throughout the year. Such events include the Young Latino Leadership Summit and the Young Women’s Leadership Summit. This is in addition to its annual Student Action Summit in December. Past guest speakers at such events include conservative figures such as Tucker Carlson, Tomi Lahren and Donald Trump Jr.

“Conservative views on college campuses don’t have a voice and they’re usually silent. I hope we will be allowed to openly discuss and express those voices,” said Flynn, president of NCC’s TPUSA chapter. The campus chapter has yet to be granted official student organization status. Regardless, she cited a following of about 10 to 15 members so far.

“I’ve been following their (TPUSA) social media and I agree with their issues and feel that there was no organization on campus that aligned with my beliefs on capitalism, markets and freedom of speech,” said Flynn.

All of these are cornerstones of the organization.

TPUSA, however, has had documented racist and sexist behavior on other campuses. As a result, it has garnered a bad reputation across colleges nationwide.

A chat between group members of the Florida International University chapter recently was published. It contains racist and anti-Semitic memes, cartoon pornography and jokes regarding rape. In addition, past TPUSA employees have been caught multiple times tweeting and texting racially insensitive material including the n-word.

TPUSA’s Director of Communications Candace Owens recently came under attack when video surfaced from an event in London where she said, “If Hitler just wanted to make Germany great and have things run well, OK fine.”

Owens later released a statement saying her words were misinterpreted and that Hitler’s actions were inexcusable.

Other conservative youth organizations, such as Young America’s Foundation, have urged conservative students to steer clear of the controversial organization.

“Those other chapters are completely separate and NCC’s chapter has included in the constitution that everybody is welcome, everybody will be involved regardless of race and sexual orientation,” said Flynn.

Flynn also said that the group’s intention is not to force beliefs on anyone or make anyone feel unwanted on campus.

In 2016, TPUSA premiered Professor Watchlist, an online directory of left-leaning college professors who have been accused of “threatening conservative views.” Adam Kotsko, Shimer Professor of Humanities at NCC, is on the list.

“I have never been shy about my opinions, when it’s relevant, but I’ve also never had a student adopt my viewpoint because it’s my viewpoint. I can’t even get students to do the reading, much less change their worldview,” said Kotsko.

Organizations like the American Associations of University Professors (AAUP) works to protect the academic freedom of college and university professors from establishments like TPUSA.

Academic freedom allows professors to teach according to their own professional standards and to conduct research and pursue it in whichever direction it leads. They can exercise freedom of speech inside and outside of the classroom, as long as what they say and do is amendment-protected activity.

Steve Macek, professor of communications and AAUP member, has research experience closely relating to First Amendment rights.

“Universities cannot fire — colleges cannot fire — faculty for what they say as citizens, as long as what they’re doing as citizens are First Amendment-protected activity,” said Macek.

TPUSA’s Professor Watchlist stands in stark contrast to these ideas for criticizing professors for what they say both in and out of the classroom.

“It’s very troubling to me, the tactics they’ve adopted. Independent research on the contents of the watchlist have found countless errors,” said Macek. “I’ve looked through many of the write-ups of many faculty members on the watchlist, and not a single one mentions a really documented case of a conservative student being discriminated against in the classroom, or of a faculty member trying to use his or her classroom as a political pulpit.”

In addition to Professor Watchlist and other behavior, Turning Point has also come under fire in recent years for college campaign finance violations at both the University of Ohio and the University of Maryland at College Park. Thousands of dollars in campaign funds were offered under the table to conservative students who ran for office at their universities. Those students were later forced to drop out of the race due to the rule violations.

“You do have to consider the track record of an organization because if they’re going around to campus after campus and spending money trying to nefariously influence the outcome of student government elections,” said Macek. “I’m not sure that we necessarily want an organization like that operating on campus.”

Money for such actions come in the form of donations from individuals such as Ed Uihlein, major donor to former Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner’s foundation; the Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation (in-laws of U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos); Waste Management; and the NRA; amounting to millions of dollars.

But regardless of public perception, First Amendment rights give college students the right to speak and gather as they please. As cited in Healy vs. James (1972), students cannot be denied a right to organize.

“You can’t discriminate on the basis of ideological viewpoints. So even though I am very critical of Turning Point USA and its ideology … I believe that students have the right to form a chapter and join a chapter,” said Macek.

“In principle, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with a campus group about conservative politics,” said Kotsko. “It’s not something I would agree with but of course it’s legitimate.”

According to the New Organization Registration Packet, new student organizations must have a faculty adviser and a list of at least five members. They must also fill out registration paperwork (including a typed constitution) and draft a budget for organization events, all of which Flynn is working on completing.

DuShaun Branch, assistant director of student involvement, stated that a TPUSA chapter would be granted the same permissions as other student organizations. The group must follow procedures outlined in the New Organization Registration Packet.

“Turning Point USA is a national organization with registered chapters at multiple colleges and universities, including several of our neighbors in the state of Illinois,” said Branch.

Having a Turning Point chapter at NCC would be about gathering like-minded people.

“College politics in general tend to have a one-sided view of things and it doesn’t hurt to have those different views and to open up the conversation more,” said Flynn. “It’s good to get those multiple views. We just are looking for a space where we can gather and share those views.”