St. Louis University denies recognition to a conservative group on campus for being insufficiently ‘inclusive.’
St. Louis University denies recognition to a conservative group on campus for being insufficiently ‘inclusive.’
I n its mission statement, St. Louis University, a Catholic institution, claims to create “an academic environment that values and promotes free, active and original intellectual inquiry among its faculty and students.”
It would appear contradictory, then, that the school just denied a conservative Young Americans for Freedom group, under the guise of not being “inclusive” enough.
One wishes this could be seen as an anomaly. But unfortunately, over the course of the last year, St. Louis University (SLU) has made its agenda clear: silence conservatives, and punish those who dare to challenge its censorship.
Indeed, the students attempting to start the chapter have a long history of facing off against SLU administrators. The school punished conservative activists for posting a satirical “What is a woman?” video last semester. It also nearly expelled a student for daring to advertise YAF’s Matt Walsh event off-campus. The event, held by the SLU College Republicans, faced backlash from administrators and students for daring to challenge the pop-culture narrative surrounding transgenderism. The Catholic church on campus, which was slated to host the event, even pulled out from providing a venue just 24 hours before the speech was scheduled to take place — leaving the conservative group scrambling to find a suitable off-campus venue. Administrators were desperate to keep the school’s distance from the student organization’s event, and took out their frustrations on a student who simply wanted Matt Walsh’s ideas to be heard by as many as possible.
The school’s rejection of recognition to the YAF chapter on campus means the club cannot apply for funding, or host speakers on campus. But some of the reasons offered for the rejection seem technical, and thus pretextual, such as the supposed fact that the campus College Republicans group already fills the “niche” that YAF would, or that the campus CRs have already worked with YAF’s national organization. The first contention is subjective at best; as for the second, has the school considered that YAF worked with CRs precisely because there wasn’t a YAF chapter on campus yet? The College Republicans and Young Americans for Freedom have two totally different purposes on campus; that of the former is to promote a party agenda and to get candidates elected, while that of the latter is to spread conservative ideas and promote freedom, regardless of party affiliation.
But, again, those read like technical complaints. The heart of the matter seems to be the criticism that YAF is an insufficiently “inclusive” organization. Why? Because members believe that men cannot become women, that life begins at conception, and that marriage is between one man and one woman — all views held by the Vatican?
It’s hard to escape the conclusion that conservatives are being treated like second-class citizens, simply because tyrannical administrators and student-government members do not share similar ideological beliefs.
It is paramount to underscore that the school is coming down on some of the few students who still believe and preach Catholic doctrine on these issues, while elevating groups like the “SLU Sluts,” which promotes abortion on-demand, harasses conservative students, and falsely claims that people can identify as whichever gender they choose — all flying in the face of Catholic teaching. The “SLU Sluts” praised the desecration of a pro-life memorial on campus last semester — an act the school declined to punish.
The school also hosted a self-described “queer non-binary sex+body positive community chaplain” just last month. Not exactly in line with the views of the Catholic Church.
Sadly, many Catholic institutions of higher learning are just as infamously left-wing as schools like UC Berkeley, perhaps even more so — hiding their social-justice agendas under the guise of biblical teaching. These YAF activists will continue the fight to promote freedom on their campus, despite the leftist attempts to silence them. Concerned community members and freedom fighters alike can voice their opinion on this denial to SLU President Fred Pestello, who — so far — has refused to overturn the student government’s decision.