Young Americans for Freedom is a well known and respected organization for conservative college students. They’ve been denied the opportunity to establish a chapter at Asuza Pacific University in California. The reason why will blow your mind.

Read this report from Patrick Coyle at the YAF blog.

Azusa Pacific University Blocks YAF Chapter

Azusa Pacific University (Azusa, California) has blocked students from forming a Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) chapter, which is a project of Young America’s Foundation. Administrators said they are banning the group because they disagree with principles stated on YAF’s national website (www.yaf.org).

Ashley Blackwell, the would-be chair of the chapter, is currently the chair of a generic conservative club at APU and wants to formally affiliate with YAF. Ashley and other key members of her club have attended a number of Foundation conferences both in Washington, D.C., and at the Reagan Ranch, which Young America’s Foundation has owned and preserved since 1998.

In a conversation with Foundation Vice President Patrick Coyle, Chuck Strawn, executive director of “communiversity” at Azusa said that he and other administrators disagree with language used on the Foundation’s website, and therefore Blackwell and her fellow students couldn’t be affiliated with YAF.  Strawn admitted that their decision was based on his and other’s opinions and not on the school’s written policy.

Strawn told Blackwell and YAF that he was particularly bothered by the following language on Young America’s Foundation’s website:

Are you tired of liberal ideas dominating your campus? Are you tired of liberal and Marxist professors indoctrinating your classmates? Do you want to advance conservatism? 

If you answered yes, then you should start a Young Americans for Freedom chapter. YAF chapters make a difference by boldly advancing freedom and conservatism.  Radical feminists, big government bureaucrats, fringe environmentalists, race-baiters, Islamo-fascists, and run of the mill leftists are distraught that you would even think about promoting conservative ideas.  

Ashley Blackwell noted, “It is really disappointing that a school, which promotes diversity and uses the mantra ‘everyone matters,’ would ban an existing club from changing its name. It is even more frustrating that this censorship isn’t even due to school rules or policy.  It is the result of a few administrators’ personal opinions.  They just don’t agree with language on YAF’s website about college’s having liberal professors. I guess the truth hurts.”