Wichita State Student Government Denies Request to Form Libertarian Club, Claims It’s ‘Dangerous’

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On Wednesday evening, the student senate at Wichita State University denied the request of students seeking to form a chapter of a prominent libertarian student organization on campus.

Students at Wichita State, which currently has no libertarian student organization on campus, seeking to start a Young Americans for Liberty chapter at the university were denied in a vote by the student senate on Wednesday evening.

Speaking to Wichita State’s student newspaper, The Sunflower, Student Senator Sandra Carlo was vocal in her opposition to the formation of a Young Americans for Liberty club, ironically defending the right to free speech before claiming the organization to be “dangerous.”

“Although I am someone who absolutely believes in free speech and activism and being able to speak up, what we have seen from this organization is dangerous,” Carlo said.

Several students expressed concern over the tendency of Young Americans for Liberty chapters to invite former Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos to speak on campus, arguing that Yiannopoulos’ criticism of contemporary feminism and the Black Lives Matter movement borders on “hate speech.”

One senator offered a warning: “We’ve seen very dangerous statements being said in the name of free speech.”

“I think that if we want to have a libertarian organization on campus, there are other ways to do that,” Student Senator Zubair Kahn said, arguing that the organization’s “controversial legacy” would fail to outweigh the positives of starting a chapter at WSU.

Of the 29 senators that voted on the proposal, 16 voted against the formation of the club.

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) condemned the student government’s decision, claiming it directly contradicts with a 1972 Supreme Court decision that ruled that public colleges may not deny a student organization recognition “simply because it finds the views expressed by any group to be abhorrent.”

Tom Ciccotta is a libertarian who writes about economics and higher education for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter @tciccotta or email him at tciccotta@breitbart.com

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