Baylor University in Waco, Texas, has denied official recognition for the Turning Point USA club on campus. The school has not provided any reasoning for its decision.
According to the students who have been trying to get their TPUSA club off the ground for months, Baylor has provided little communication and hasn’t explained its decision to deny recognition for the club.
TPUSA at Baylor chapter president Oliver Mintz told Breitbart News that the school’s Student Activities department said that it would provide the conservative students with a list of reasons as to why the group was denied approval, but that the students have not received a response to date.
According to email correspondence obtained by Breitbart News, the TPUSA chapter president had first requested the list of reasons for the group’s denial on December 17.
On February 14, Mintz had again reached out to the Student Activities office via email — this time, contacting the director of Student Activities, Matt Burchett, to request the information.
Mintz told Breitbart News that he had not received a reply. On February 26, the conservative student reached out to Burchett once more.
“Good morning,” wrote Mintz in his follow-up email to Burchett. “I am just sending this email to see if you had received my email from about two weeks ago.”
Again, the student said that he has yet to receive a reply.
Mintz then emailed an assistant director in the Student Activities department, who replied one week later on March 9, stating that she would “circle back with Matt.”
The student says that he has yet to receive a follow-up email from the assistant director regarding her “circling back” with Burchett on the issue.
Mintz added that in the meeting they had with Student Activities where the department officially denied the group for approval, the directors were “unable to provide us with any reason for the denial,” other than a vague reference to TPUSA’s so-called “methodology.”
“They also brought up concerns about the leadership of the organization once our current leadership and founders graduate by saying that they were worried about a ‘drop-off’ and ‘decline’ with future leadership,” added Mintz. “This could be said about any club on campus whether it’s the knitting club or a political organization.”
“This denial was biased, plain and simple,” the student affirmed. “However, we are looking forward to productive dialogue with them in the near future to provide them with more information that could help them make a well-informed decision.”
“We firmly understand that Baylor, as a private university, has the absolute right to deny us a charter,” he added. “However, by denying us, they are showing us their true colors — that they are against free speech and against conservative values being presented on campus.”
Baylor University did not immediately respond to Breitbart News’ request for comment.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.