Why was Turning Point USA rejected by Wichita State University Student Senate?

A student organization advocating “the principles of freedom, free markets, and limited government” was denied official recognition by the Wichita State University Student Senate last week. For no good reason that either the university president or I can discern.

It makes you wonder if the university’s own business school could get approved today by members of the Student Government Association.

Olivia Gallegos, a 19-year-old junior, has started a WSU chapter of the national Turning Point USA organization. At 165 members, it’s not a small group at a place such as WSU. Nor is it in any way fringe: The group believes “the United States of America is the greatest country in the history of the world, the U.S. Constitution is the most exceptional political document ever written, and that capitalism is the most moral and proven economic system ever discovered.”

But the WSU Student Senate, of which Gallegos is a part, voted 21-14 with four abstentions not to grant her club Recognized Student Organization status. Few reasons were given.

“We had one senator just straight-up say ‘I just don’t agree with this organization’s purpose’,” she tells me.

This, despite the fact that the Intersectional Student Leftist Association — which focuses on “educating ourselves and others about what true leftism, socialism and communism are” — is an organization in good standing at WSU and a recipient of SGA funding.

Turning Point WSU’s stunning rejection is being appealed to the student Supreme Court, which was expected to hear the case as early as Tuesday night.

“If this was a decision based on the organization’s political and/or social views and statements, it is contrary to the SGA’s rules and regulations,” Wichita State University President Rick Muma said in a forceful written statement obtained by Wichita television station KWCH. “A decision based on political and/or social views clearly does not align with the university’s obligations and commitment to preserve and support freedom of speech and expression.”

Maybe all this shouldn’t be such a shocker after all. Gallegos says such organizations are fighting for recognition and survival on campuses across the country. And in 2017, the WSU Student Government Association similarly denied recognition to a campus chapter of Young Americans for Liberty — before the student Supreme Court had to step in and overturn that decision as well.

What in the world is going on?

Gallegos, who started the Turning Point chapter after becoming a student senator and seeing “a lot of representation for the left, but not much for the right,” says her group’s situation is an alarming statement about the education system in general. She saw it in her International Baccalaureate program in high school.

“It was very sympathetic toward socialism and very sympathetic toward Stalin, Mao, Castro, Mussolini — all of them,” she says. “From my experiences alone, I see where our education system is guiding students toward the ideals of socialism and communism, and pushing them away from capitalist and pro-America mindsets. It’s very concerning.”

It’s certainly vexing to a growing number of Wichita State alumni.

“I think it is a stink on the university that the student government has continued to make this choice,” says David Thorne, Sedgwick County Republican Party chair and a WSU alum. He says university donors will be put off by it — as they were when Ivanka Trump was disinvited to speak remotely there last year. “As long as the WSU student government continues this type of behavior, people will have to second-guess their support or attraction to the university.”

Seeking Recognized Student Organization status isn’t so they can enter a float in the homecoming parade. At present, Turning Point USA has to meet outside the WSU student center because it can’t reserve a room without incurring fees. “That’s a big thing, especially in Wichita,” Gallegos says. “As it starts moving closer and closer to winter, it will start snowing. We’re not going to have a space to meet outside, if that’s the case.”

And, of course, the group deserves access to event funding that other organizations now get.

“This is an unconstitutional situation that we’re in. We haven’t done anything wrong,” Gallegos says. “We have every right to be here, just as much as the communist group, the College Democrats, the feminists on campus. When they get out into the real world, there’s going to be a lot that they disagree with. And you can’t just silence them or remove them from the public square because you disagree with them.”

Muma writes that he trusts any violation of Turning Point USA’s constitutional rights will be remedied on appeal — but that if not, “the university will continue to ensure this organization, and all eligible student organizations, receive the full benefits and resources made available to them by the university.”

Gallegos’ group also is in touch with the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, a nonprofit civil liberties organization protecting free speech on college campuses.

Let’s hope it doesn’t go that far. It shouldn’t have gone as far as it has.