Conservative students at Azusa Pacific University, an evangelical Christian university near Los Angeles, have been blocked from starting a chapter of Young Americans for Freedom because the school took issue with the group’s principles.
The YAF is a program sponsored by the Young America’s Foundation — dedicated to introducing young people to the ideas of individual freedom, a strong national defense, free enterprise and traditional values. The foundation also owns and preserves the Reagan Ranch.
Patrick Coyle, vice president of the Young America’s Foundation, said they were approached by students who wanted to be recognized as a YAF chapter.
“They were told by the administrators that they could not change their name because they had looked at our website and didn’t like the language we used,” Coyle told Fox News.
Administrators specifically took issue with references to liberal professors and radical feminists who are trying to take over college campuses across the nation.
Ashley Blackwell was one of the students hoping to launch the YAF chapter. She is currently the president of the Young Conservatives club on campus.
“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,” she told Breitbart.com — which first reported the incident.
So Coyle called Chuck Strawn, the director of the university’s “Office of Communiversity.”
“I asked if there were any written rules the students had violated and he said no,” Coyle said. “He said it was just their opinion.”
He said the specific language Azusa Pacific took issue with is:
“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.”
