Final- minute changes pressure cancellation, group alleges
Following requests from an executive, Young Americans for Freedom had its function canceled at Westminster College.
According to a media release from Young America’s Foundation, Vice President for Student Affairs Gina Vance “insisted that simply British students and faculty would be permitted to attend,” perhaps going so far as to eliminate professor academics and non-faculty team.”
” The Young Americans for Freedom chapter…requested]Vince ] Ellison, a passionate black voice in the Conservative Movement, to speak out against the Left’s DEI, abortion, and transgenderism agendas”, the national conservative group stated.
The Presbyterian institution was scheduled to host the event last night.
At the last moment, Vance offered to let the party hire additional security professionals for the occasion at the New Wilmington, Pa. school, according to Dylan Kresak, the group’s president.
Kresak also had to tell the school what Ellison’s ( pictured ) “expertise” was as part of the approval process, the junior political science major said during a phone interview on Monday with The College Fix.
Though one executive therefore approved the occasion, Vance then said the “political” nature of the event required more ways.
Kresak said he never said it was a “political” occasion, though he said he wanted to bring Ellison to encourage free speech.
Vance subsequently raised issues with the situation, including changing the deal and citing” security concerns” in preventing the audience from attending the conversation.
The superintendent, according to YAF’s leader, would only provide one armed security agent. According to Vice, the problem for security may fall to the university consultant, Kresak told The Fix.
YAF’s assistant pushed up on those demands, leading to the withdrawal of the event.
The College has withdrawn its support for the event’s planned date of Tuesday, April 30. The event has been canceled”, Vance announced via email to the little university, with around 1, 200 individuals.
Vance did never respond to an email on Monday asking for comment on the situation, asking if there was any more perspective to YAF’s account that she could increase.
A voice or contact from the school’s media relations team on Monday asking what caused the cancellation and how the organization may be working with the YAF chapter to resolve the issue this semester did not arrive.
Ellison was a” custodial officer at a highest- security incarceration” and grew up on a cotton farm, according to his profile. He is also an author.
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The small college has” a lot of DEI programs”, Kresak told The Fix, when asked about why he wanted to host Ellison.
” We have a DEI faculty committee, we have a DEI committee within the student government association”, he said. Through a DEI initiative, the music department has also recently hired a new jazz director.
” I saw that, and I really want to bring someone to speak about DEI”, Kresak said.
” I thought it was necessary that I…bring someone here, to talk about this”.
One difficulty group was overcome by rescheduling their speakers.
Since the start of this academic year, the YAF group has encountered additional issues on campus.
” Getting the group approved was a very convoluted process”, Kresak said. The club had to get approval from several committees, composed of faculty and students.
Vance was a member of one of the committees, but his organization’s delegation did not attend the meeting.
Kresak told The Fix that the university leadership also turned down funding requests for the Ellison event.
His chapter had similar problems getting a 9/11 memorial event approved. In honor of the victims of September 11, 2001, chapters of the Young America’s Foundation have chapters and other organizations have American flags displayed.
His organization was still in the works as of September 2023.
Even though a student life administrator approved the event, a higher authority quickly canceled it because his group had already been approved.
” We were approved in late November]2023 ]”, Kresak said.
Prior to approval, the university’s Student Experience Council required the conservative club to answer two questions, according to an email reviewed by The Fix.
In an email to Kresak,” Could you speak more to what you think the positive and [emphasis original ] negative perceptions of your organization will be and the effects this may have on the lives of our students?
How do you intend to coexist with specific pre-existing organizations on campus whose views are opposed to what YAF stands for nationally?
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IMAGES: Young America’s Foundation, Courtesy of Dylan Kresak
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