At the core of new state laws enacted to dissolve official public university groups and offices promoting diversity, equity and inclusion — or DEI — is, in part, a right-wing panic over so-called safe spaces on campus, a misguided concern that students, supposedly, aren’t facing the real world if they hide themselves from alternative views, even ones they find abhorrent.
Well, as it turns out, this position is baked in hypocrisy — something that’s been obvious for years to anyone paying attention. After the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, by the forced hand of the state via these new anti-DEI laws, dissolved several centers and offices that provided resources to marginalized students, one such student group, conveniently, finds itself exempt from this crackdown on safe spaces.
Against the recommendation of UTC’s Student Government Association, the university recognized a local chapter of Turning Point USA — the notorious right-wing nonprofit, once headed by the late Charlie Kirk, that promotes conservatism on college campuses — as an official student organization.
Unable to cope with differing views and the diverse set of backgrounds among the student body, conservatives now have their very own safe space on UTC’s campus.
The SGA voted against recognition for good reason. Turning Point USA is a group well known for its intolerance of differing political viewpoints, going as far to resort to threats and harassment. An infamous example is Kirk’s professor watchlist, which promotes the exposure and reporting of any college faculty that is perceived to possess liberal or left-leaning perspectives.