Readers react to an article about 12 members of the Washington State Legislature requesting in a letter to the WSU president that the university disavow the WSU College Republicans. Club members targeted and provoked certain students on campus, according to the letter. The club’s current status as a Registered Student Organization allows them access to university funding and resources, which the letter stated shows that WSU supports their activities.

Read the full article here.

Michael Johnson Jr: “As far as I’m concerned, the day student groups enthusiastically support known white supremacists amongst their membership (to say nothing of the tacit endorsement of that ideology amongst unknown members), is the day they’ve abdicated their privilege to institutional recognition and the benefits that accompany that recognition.”

Andy Elliott: “I am thinking the letter wasn’t bi-partisan in nature. Outside of the actions of the student that attended the events in Charlottesville, what have the WSU College Republicans done other than bring another point of view to the table to many issues. On a college campus, a place of free speech and free ideas, I simply welcome as many contrasting view points as possible so we can have debates on the merits of those ideas. How much value is your college education if you leave after years of study with a group think mentality?”

Jacob Hogg: “I don’t necessarily agree with the letter, but xenophobia and white nationalism have no place in a university setting. Nobody deserves to be treated poorly. Your rights end where another person’s begin. Harassment is a violation of civil rights.”

Kris Axtman: “As a regular donor to WSU, my donations would stop if the university were to start de-recognizing groups with opposing viewpoints. College is supposed to be about expanding your view of the world, not narrowing it.”

Dustin Hall: “It would be going way too far to de-recognize WSU College Republicans because of the extremes of their ranks. The national CR organization has asked the white supremacists in their groups to step down from leadership positions and has denounced their views. They could do more to push out the alt-right members. Asking the national org to do that and ban people like James Allsup from the group would be a more reasonable approach than de-recognizing a group on campus that represents one of our country’s major political parties.”

Mickey Finch: “This isn’t something that legislation should be involved in. Shame is all that should be necessary to dissuade people from associating with white nationalists.”