The University of Texas Student Government last evening overwhelmingly voted down a measure to disband the Young Conservatives of Texas group.
The vote was 26 against, 4 in favor, and 2 abstentions.
The YCT was in hot water because it held an “affirmative action bake sale” late last month — with the predictable result of angering the usual suspects. Some were so angry, in fact, that a petition was quickly started calling for the YCT to be kicked off campus for its … “hate crime.”
Student Government followed with a resolution, AR-15 (gasp — did that designation set them off?), to get rid of the YCT — despite the U. Texas administration saying it would “not take action against an organization for protected speech.”
One of those desiring YCT’s ouster was Ashley Choi, a member of the UT Student Government and one of AR-15’s authors.
[Choi] said those in support wanted SG to send a message to the student body that racism would not be tolerated.
“It’s legal to practice and exercise the right of freedom of speech,” Choi said. “It was never about legality. We never approached this in terms of legality, but we just wanted the University and the student body to protect those who were directly harmed by the bake sale.”
During the debate portion for the resolution, 13 different SG members stood representing the side dissenting the passage of the AR 15. Several of those dissenting condemned YCT for the bake sale and asked for the authors of the resolution to amend it to a strong condemnation of YCT, rather than calling for the total disbandment of the group.
MORE: ‘Racists go home!’ protest confronts (anti)-affirmative action bake sale
“The reason why I said this was non-negotiable is because this incident is not an isolated incident,” Choi said. “They have been condemned, they have been criticized and they have been denounced multiple times by both the University and the student body … We want to punish the source of this which is systematic racism and xenophobia and that’s why we aren’t willing to negotiate it.”
YCT Communications Director Allison Peregory said SG made the right decision by upholding freedom of speech principles.
“YCT-UT is pleased to see AR15 fail by such a large margin,” Peregory said in a text. “It is great to see so many students that, while they may not all agree with our conservative principles, understand the fundamental importance of freedom of speech on university campuses.”
Choi’s verbal fatuity just confirms what The College Fix pointed out earlier this month — that “the resolution seem[ed] intended more for public consumption than actual passage” as it was sent to local — and national — media.
Kudos to the U. Texas SG for standing up for that concept known as “free speech.”
MORE: Petition wants conservative group kicked off campus for affirmative action bake sale
MORE: UT student government wants to ‘disband’ YCT for ‘hate-filled’ bake sale
Like The College Fix on Facebook / Follow us on Twitter
IMAGE: Shutterstock
Please join the conversation about our stories on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, MeWe, Rumble, Gab, Minds and Gettr.