EDITOR’S NOTE: The University of West Florida reinstated the College Republicans less than a day after this report was published, admitting to an “administrative error” by which the club’s current leadership never received information on pending deadlines. Read this subsequent College Fix report for the update.
We’re not ‘discriminating’ if they screw up
The University of West Florida’s sudden derecognition of its College Republicans chapter is turning into a dispute over screenshots and timestamps.
The club claims that the university ignored its timely renewal application and gave it just a few hours’ notice of a mandatory workshop for club officers.
“Let me make it clear, WE DO NOT WANT SPECIAL TREATMENT,” the club wrote on its Facebook page Wednesday. “We want to be treated equally. We do not want the snide remarks from administration.”
But university spokesperson Megan Gonzalez told The College Fix in an email the CRs were fully informed of the requirements, and “the University is not discriminating against the organization.”
As a “disabled” student organization, the CRs can still meet on campus and reserve space, but “at a cost,” Gonzalez said.
MORE: UC Irvine College Republicans sanctioned for Milo event
On Wednesday, the club was informed that its appeal was denied by the Campus Collaboration Board.
It will remain officially unrecognized until the spring semester, depriving the CRs of eligibility to receive activity and service fee funds, participate in student organization fairs and other perks.
The president of the University of California-Irvine CRs is comparing the UWF situation to her own group’s “banishment” from campus, based on an administrative pretext, after it told UC-Irvine it wanted to bring back gay conservative firebrand Milo Yiannopoulos to campus.
https://twitter.com/IamQueenAri/status/776282095693946880
Two weeks notice … to the wrong contacts?
The CRs at UWF told Breitbart that its renewal application was submitted before the 5 p.m. deadline on Sept. 2, as shown by a confirmation email with a 4:32 p.m. timestamp.
President Charlotte Davis said the chapter was informed by email Sept. 1 that an officer must attend a Student Organization Leadership Development workshop that same day. That email arrived less than three hours before the workshop, and no officer could make it.
University spokesperson Gonzalez provided a screenshot to The Fix showing that the CRs submitted the renewal application to the ArgoPulse student portal at 5:57 p.m. Sept. 2, almost an hour late.
MORE: Vandals steal and rip up UC-Berkeley CRs’ Trump figure
Another screenshot shows that the CRs’ adviser, first-year advising staffer Hayden Riggs, and Davis (the “primary contact”) signed off on the registration form at 5:01 p.m. and 5:55 p.m. Both must approve the form before the deadline, Gonzalez said.
Regarding the CRs’ claim that the club was notified only hours ahead of the final mandatory workshop, Gonzalez said the registration and renewal information was plastered around campus: yard signs by the library, commons and a recreation facility, “banners and posters” around campus since late spring, and posts in the ArgoPulse newsfeed.
Gonzalez provided another screenshot of an Aug. 14 email to club officers and advisers reminding them of the mandatory Sept. 1 workshop and Sept. 2 renewal deadline.
At that time, the CRs’ adviser was Prof. Neil Davis and primary contact was James Ward, Florida field coordinator for student free-market organization Turning Point USA.
This is not the first time the CRs’ status has lapsed, Gonzalez said: It was also disabled in the spring 2016 semester.
She did not initially respond to a Fix request to explain the CRs’ proffered email confirmation of its registration with a 4:32 p.m. timestamp. Gonzalez told The Fix Friday that the CRs’ screenshot depicted an email confirmation for “filling out the actual form, but the process is not complete until both the primary [contact] and the advisor approve the form.”
Registered Democrat vs. pro-Trump club
Davis told Breitbart that she discussed the situation with Ben Stubbs, director of student involvement, the day after the renewal deadline.
He allegedly told her that the club would likely not be reinstated, and responding to her complaint that his office had made re-registration “inexplicably difficult,” Stubbs said “your organization needs better leadership.”
MORE: UConn CRs call Trump ‘mentally unstable’
Stubbs is a registered Democrat, according to The Fix’s review of Florida Division of Elections records. Unlike some CR chapters across the country, the UWF chapter is unabashedly pro-Donald Trump, as evidenced by recent posts on its Facebook page in favor of the GOP presidential nominee.
“I don’t think that Mr. Stubbs would have told us that we needed better leadership if we had been the College Democrats,” Davis told Breitbart. She suggested the CRs were disabled “in a slippery way that wouldn’t appear like outright political discrimination.”
Davis responded to an initial Fix request for comment Thursday but did not answer questions before publication. Stubbs did not respond to a request for comment.
UPDATE: University spokesperson Megan Gonzalez told The Fix after publication that the College Republicans’ email confirmation with a 4:32 p.m. timestamp showed the club had filled out the form before the 5 p.m. deadline, but the process was not complete because their primary contact and adviser had not signed off on it. The article has been amended accordingly.
MORE: UC-Irvine CRs demand apology after reinstatement
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IMAGES: doddis77/Shutterstock, Breitbart screenshot, Argopulse screenshots, Ben Stubbs/Twitter
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