New Orleans, LA – On December 3, students at Loyola University New Orleans showed up to oppose the second attempt at chartering a Turning Point USA chapter on their campus.

In October of this year, a small group of conservative students attended a student senate session to propose a TPUSA Charter at Loyola. At that meeting, over 100 students packed the room to show their opposition to a chapter on campus. When the senate denied the charter, the pro-TPUSA students appealed to have their proposal heard again.

The vice president of Loyola’s Student Government Association (SGA) called an emergency senate meeting for the night of December 2 with one agenda item – the chartering of TPUSA at Loyola. Around 70 anti-TPUSA students and several pro-TPUSA non-students filled the senate chambers starting at 6 p.m.

At first, the student government president told attendees that several people would have to leave the room in order to not exceed the room's capacity of 50 people. Some moved to the hallway and then were dispersed by university police. The senate session began and the vice president motioned to adopt an executive session that would, essentially, force everyone out of the room except the SGA members and the students trying to establish the TPUSA chapter. Senators voted unanimously to adopt an executive senate session, consequently forcing all constituents out of the room.

Students, as well as TPUSA supporters, stood in the library's commons area for around an hour and a half awaiting the senate's decision. While waiting, students were asked how they felt about having a TPUSA chapter on campus.

“TPUSA isn’t just a student group. They are a group backed by the GOP with missions like the Campus Victory Project which have the whole purpose of limiting free speech on college campuses and infiltrating student governments so that they can harm progressive student organizations. They are not an organization about freedom of thought and speech, they are an organization about control,” said junior and sociology major Miu Sims.

A freshman biology major expressed concern about the professor watch list that TPUSA maintains saying, “If professors are constantly being surveilled like that, they lose their freedoms as well. The whole higher education system will begin to lose its integrity.”

Around 7:45 p.m. the students trying to charter the TPUSA chapter started to exit the room. It became apparent to students that the SGA would not announce the verdict for at least another hour until everyone had left. Students then began to chant “No Trump, no KKK, no TPUSA” and around 25 students marched out of the library and rallied outside.

At the rally, senior sociology major Juleea Berthelot said to the crowd, “TPUSA doesn’t belong on our campus, and if they are chartered we will be there to protest them. Every time they try to bring a racist onto our campus we will be there to say: ‘Hell no!’ Not on our campus, not in our name, because we are a diverse community here. That’s why I chose [Loyola] and I’m sure that’s why you chose it!” Students erupted in claps and cheers. Berthelot continued, “And we’re going to keep it that way. We aren’t going to let right-wing reactionaries kick us off our own campus.”

By 8:50 p.m. it was announced that the Loyola student government senate decided to, once again, deny TPUSA’s charter.

#NewOrleansLA #LA #StudentMovement #TPUSA #SDS

Orem, UT – On Tuesday October 21, just over 40 students and community members gathered to protest any sort of Charlie Kirk memorial on campus. This protest was held about 200 feet from the spot where Charlie Kirk was killed

Utah Valley University has appointed a committee to oversee development of a memorial. Members include UVU administrators, a member of the UVU board of trustees, a member of the Utah House of Representatives, other Utah government workers, and three student representatives.

One of the protest attendees, and UVU Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) member, Oscar Guerrero stated, “We don’t want to prolong the trauma and memorialize hateful rhetoric.”

Guerrero continued, “This man constantly peddled misinformation and harmful rhetoric about minorities that has caused harm to both myself and others. To memorialize him would substantiate his harmful and divisive behavior that goes against the values of unity, inclusion and belonging that UVU claims to uphold.”

Another protest attendee, UVU SDS member Kareem Kasem stated, “He was a racist who didn’t believe in empathy,” and “I think it would be very divisive if there is a memorial in his likeness. I have a feeling that it will just be vandalized and students who had nothing to do with it will be threatened over it.”

Alexander Draper added, “I was there because I think it would be foolish for the school to make a memorial for someone who spoke so openly against college education, and who was vocally racist and hateful towards Islamic people, queer folks, and most anyone that didn't align with white American evangelism.”

The UVU Students for a Democratic Society plan to hold another protest before winter fully sets in on campus and before the semester ends.

#OremUT #UT #StudentMovement #CharlieKirk #SDS #TPUSA