Joseph Warta documents for the Martin Center student descriptions of college campuses’ responses to conservative groups.
Martin Matuszewski, Young Americans for Liberty at North Carolina State University:
Administrators are either really disorganized or indifferent to the needs of organizations like ours. For example, I had to find out that there was an equipment rental system on my own for an event we recently held. That was nowhere on the “Get Involved” NCSU student organization website. And while an email to one of my professors, who also happens to be our chapter’s advisor, helped get word out about our event, it just seemed like the school is too compartmentalized to have any streamlined process for holding events. …
… Joseph Lord, Turning Point USA at Clemson University, South Carolina:
Administration is clearly biased against the right. That said, they’re actually relatively good about defending student groups that are right wing–Clemson has a huge right-wing presence: Tiger Town Observer (a political news website), Turning Point USA, Young Americans for Freedom, Young Americans for Liberty, etc. Administrators are definitely bureaucrats. But they’re certainly not as bad as you find on some other campuses; this year, we’ve been totally left alone.
The student body’s apathy is our biggest problem. …
… Sarah Scherer, Young Americans for Liberty at the University of Georgia-Athens:
Students who disagree with us are apathetic and quiet; we haven’t gotten any violent or passionate pushback. We’re polite to everyone and don’t try to “trigger” people intentionally, so maybe that has something to do with it. We just say what we believe…We have lots of interest and enthusiasm from people in our club. We’re very tight-knit.
But the process of starting a club is ridiculous. It includes extensive forms, deadlines, and long wait times to be “approved” by the administration before you can apply for a meeting room.
