January 1, Ohio Student Faces Backlash for Starting Conservative Group

Wyatt’s Take

• Student faces tough opposition for launching a conservative chapter on campus.
• Support grows from faculty while students try to block the effort.
• Despite backlash, momentum for free speech on campus is rising.

A student at Baldwin Wallace University is working to start a Turning Point USA group, but she says classmates are tearing down flyers and sending hateful messages to stop it.

“We never really got the momentum that we needed and the support that we needed, but this year after, you know, Charlie Kirk’s assassination, it’s such an unfortunate circumstance that it gave us the push that we needed to get this up and going on campus,” said Grace Pruchnicki, the student leading the effort.

The chapter is close to getting school recognition, but Pruchnicki shared how tough things have been from other students. “We have people that tear down our posters every single day. We have people that have filled out a general interest form so that we can have a list of people to contact when we start having meetings. And we’ve had a lot of hate speech in those forms that people have filled out,” she said.

Even as other students push back, she finds hope in faculty support. “We have a really supportive advisor who has been helping us out a lot,” said Pruchnicki. “I have personally had many faculty members from all different departments on campus reach out to me personally and say, you know, they support everything that we’re doing, and if we need any help too that they will absolutely 100% help us.”

Another student, Carly Voltz, started a petition to try and stop the group from forming. She reported almost 200 responses, though not all were from university students. “I saw that many students were raising concerns, and I wanted to have a number behind those concerns so that people could see that this wasn’t just a few students,” Voltz explained.

The university says the petition won’t affect the official approval process. “BW has guidelines for establishment of new student groups and a petition does not influence that process. At this time, we do not have an active chapter of Turning Point USA. Students have, however, taken the early steps toward establishing a chapter of Turning Point USA as a recognized student group. The next step in that process is for the group to submit a draft charter for review and potential recognition by Student Government.”

The university says it supports free speech but expects all groups to treat others with respect. “As a university that values open dialogue and the free exchange of ideas, we fully support our students’ rights to explore and express a wide range of viewpoints. Students are always welcome to propose new organizations, and any such application is reviewed carefully and fairly through our standard process for student groups.”

Requests for new Turning Point USA chapters have jumped since Charlie Kirk’s death. The organization says more than 120,000 students have asked how to start similar groups.

If you stand up for your beliefs, you can expect some backlash, but pushing for your voice to be heard is the only way for regular Americans to protect their freedoms.

Wyatt Matters

Standing strong for what you believe in means weathering storms. It’s not easy running against the current, but the heartland knows that freedom and open speech are worth fighting for, even when the road is rough.

Read the full story here