In an unprecedented move, the vice provost at Santa Clara University overturned the student senate’s decision to reject Turning Point USA, a conservative non-profit organization, from receiving official status at the school last month.
Vice Provost for Student Life Jeanne Rosenberger reportedly announced late Friday that the group qualifies for Registered Student Organization status, making Turning Point USA the first chapter in Northern California to receive such recognition. According to the San Jose Mercury News, Rosenberger said Turning Point espouses “fiscal responsibility, free markets, and limited government.”
With a presence on over 1,000 campuses nationwide, Turning Point USA describes its mission as to “identify, educate, train, and organize students to promote the principles of fiscal responsibility, free markets, and limited government.”
The student government initially rejected Turning Point USA, stating its belief that the the group makes other students “feel uncomfortable” and goes against “humanity.”
SCU student Caleb Alleva, who helped form Turning Point USA on the school’s campus told the Mercury News, “they rejected us based on illogical reasoning, trying to lump us together with the national chapter’s interactions. You can’t base our actions off other people — you can’t deny someone because of something they might do.”
Last month, Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk told Breitbart News, “this is the campus left at its very worst. Our organization was denied for no other reason other than 18 out of 28 senators disagreed with us. And that is a very dangerous precedent: When you can silence someone’s right to assemble just because you disagree with them.”
A “social justice” advocate who reportedly opposed the provost’s decision told the Mercury News that student leaders were telling Turning Point USA that the group “should just form an economic conservatives club,” but noted that at the same time, “they didn’t want to turn down resources from Turning Point.”
Provost Rosenberger’s decision reportedly cannot be contested by the student body.
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