Turning Point USA has come to Connecticut College. I believe this reflects poorly on our institution. Like many of you, I was surprised when I saw a picture of a TPUSA flyer with a professor’s email on it, so I reached out to Professor Andrew Pessin to learn more about his involvement. It turns out that he and I have some fundamental disagreements about the nature of clubs, free speech, and diversity of thought at Connecticut College, so I would like to take this article to present Professor Pessin’s position as charitably as possible and then offer my critique of his argument. All quotes in this piece are from email correspondence with Professor Pessin.
First of all, I would like to note that Professor Pessin was not the one who disseminated the TPUSA flyers that you may have seen before they were quickly taken down. He was approached by a student who was interested in starting the chapter and asked him to be the faculty advisor for the club (All clubs on campus are required to have a faculty advisor). Pessin agreed to be the club’s advisor, and the flyers were created by the student. The fact that his email was on the flyer was actually a misunderstanding; it gave the impression that he was the one starting the club, which was not what Pessin wanted nor indeed what was true. Pessin was “…merely willing to give them a chance to advocate for their worldview, as long as they follow the rules.” This is why the flyers quickly came back down.
A condensed version of Professor Pessin’s argument in favor of being the faculty advisor for, and welcoming to campus, a TPUSA chapter, is as follows. First, Pessin points out that it is unfair to assume that the chapter would misbehave and that if they do, sanctions could be applied at that point. “But not to give them a chance to express and present their views, if they follow the rules, is straightforward censorship.” He goes on to point out that Conn is frequently an echo chamber when it comes to political opinions and that “the danger of an echo chamber is so large and inimical to the educational mission that if [he is] the only faculty member willing to serve as advisor to such a club, then [he] will do it.” He extends this reasoning to say that “we are doing our students a disservice if, to protect them from harm, we fail to educate them about what exists in the world.” And crucially, he clarifies that he doesn’t feel he must agree with the positions of a student club in order to “support its right to form and advocate for those positions.” Pessin asks, “Should a majority have the right to silence the minorities within their midst?”
The concerns Pessin raises are legitimate. In particular, I find myself sympathetic to his concerns about an echo chamber and the majority silencing the minority. My group of close friends in high school was quite split politically and we frequently had lengthy debates about issues we were passionate about. I believe that experience was extremely formative for me and it taught me to value dissenting opinions. When you are presented with an opinion you disagree with from someone you respect, you are forced to more carefully examine your beliefs. You may not change your mind, but you will almost always find that there was more common ground than you thought, and at a minimum, you will gain a better understanding of the nuance of the relevant issue. For this reason, I am in no way objecting to an increased presence of right-wing ideas on campus; in fact, I would welcome a conservative political club. What I am objecting to is TPUSA as a vessel for diversity.
I would also agree to some extent that Professors need not agree with all the positions of a student group to sign on as a faculty advisor. But I think that there must be limits to this blind support. If you can agree, for example, that Nazi’s would not be welcome under any circumstances, then it follows logically that you must agree there is a line somewhere that defines an acceptable club which is in alignment with Connecticut College values. TPUSA is very clearly outside these values.
As to Pessin’s point about failing to educate our students about what exists in the world, I point out that we can educate our students about Nazi’s without having Hitler Youth on campus. Not all groups are welcome, even for educational purposes. And to be clear, I am not claiming that TPUSA is the same as Hitler Youth; I am simply pointing out that there are clearly some groups we need not support.
Pessin mentioned that TPUSA is an organization he did not know much about, so for any readers who may be in a similar position, I recommend that you do some research. TPUSA has extensive ties to racist, xenophobic, homophobic, and violent rhetoric and individuals. Perhaps most notably apparent is their founder and former executive director, Charlie Kirk. One could fill volumes with his problematic quotes alone. This article has a good collection of them if you want to read more. You could also take a look at the activism kits on TPUSA’s website, and you’ll quickly get a sense of the type of rhetoric this organization promotes. Their website overall makes clear that the goal of the organization is to promote the vision of their founder, a deeply hateful man.
We always have choices about what groups we join or support. And we must decide if these organizations are in keeping with our own values as well as those of Connecticut College. It is not enough to object in principle to things like racism and homophobia, but rather we must all, both as individuals and as members of the Connecticut College community, wholeheartedly reject organizations tainted by these unjust ideologies. This is not censorship, it is choosing not to welcome hateful organizations into our community. I am aware that one of our values is, or at least ought to be, diversity of thought, but that should not supersede our goal to be “a community in which all members feel comfortable, respect each other’s differences, and seek common ground” (Connecticut College Mission and Values). TPUSA is not a morally neutral platform for presenting conservative ideas, it is a morally reprehensible organization that has no place here.
To anyone who is still interested in having TPUSA on campus, I ask, why not join or revitalize the campus Republicans club? Why involve an organization like TPUSA if you disagree with their racism, xenophobia, homophobia, etc? There absolutely should be space here for diversity of political opinions, but that can be achieved without the involvement of an openly hateful organization such as TPUSA.
