Santa Clara University Blocks YAF Chapter's Recognition, Cites 'Emotional Harm'

Reagan McCarthy | June 03, 2019 12:00 PM

Santa Clara University recently piled on to the multitude of discrimination cases against conservatives on college campuses nationwide. The university’s student assembly voted to block the official recognition of the school’s Young Americans for Freedom chapter for the second time, despite the group’s leadership clearly meeting the institution’s requirements. The arguments put forth by student senators were entirely emotional and argued, without any tangible evidence, that YAF has historically caused emotional and mental harm to the LGBTQ community. One student even argued that YAF’s positive view of legal immigration, a foundational aspect of the United States, is hurtful because celebrating legal immigration is not inclusive to illegal immigrants.

The requirements for university recognition of a student organization at SCU are standard and simple: no overlap with other organizations, a minimum 15-student membership threshold and adherence to university and student government policies. The YAF chapter had obeyed these requirements and rules but was still vetoed by the student senate twice; these votes are nothing short of an overreach based on ideological discrimination. Quinn Eibert, the leader of the SCU YAF chapter, said that this vote’s purpose was to squash Conservative views on campus, per a release from YAF:

“I was never a physical or emotional threat to any of these Senators until I deigned to disagree with them—It speaks to their character that they’re willing to act so dishonestly to suppress the views of people who don’t fall in line with their radical intersectional-Marxist agenda,” he said.

A fundamental purpose of higher education is the opportunity to be exposed to views that students otherwise may not have been exposed to; disagreement does not mean demonization, and unique values, whether they be liberal or conservative, should never be squashed on campus.