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Did the University of Florida Suspend Conservative Student Groups?
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Did the University of Florida Suspend Conservative Student Groups?

The groups had an event that allegedly violated campus COVID-19 guidelines.

Alec Dent
Mar 29, 2021
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Did the University of Florida Suspend Conservative Student Groups?
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Earlier this month, Rep. Madison Cawthorn claimed that the University of Florida had suspended conservative clubs on campus:

Twitter avatar for @CawthornforNCMadison Cawthorn @CawthornforNC
BREAKING: 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 -Turning Point USA -College Republicans -The Network of Enlightened Women -Young Americans for Freedom Were all just SUSPENDED at the University of Florida. Leftist at universities have always wanted to silence young conservatives. STAND STRONG! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

March 19th 2021

1,150 Retweets3,583 Likes
Twitter avatar for @CawthornforNCMadison Cawthorn @CawthornforNC
The liberal oligarchs of academia at the University of Florida have suspended conservative clubs on campus. The left acts like freedom of speech is a suggestion. Remember: No matter how hard they try, they will NEVER silence our movement. 🇺🇸 @TPUSA @CRNC @NeWNetwork @yaf
Image

March 20th 2021

283 Retweets1,154 Likes

The conservative clubs in question held a joint event on campus and it is alleged the clubs had not filed the proper paperwork to reserve the space, Norman Field. The university also stated in a letter to the clubs that allegedly “event attendees were observed not complying with the Student Behavioral Expectations in Response to COVID-19 and the Campus Events Guidelines in Response to COVID-19 policies by failing to wear appropriate face coverings and/or maintain appropriate physical distance.”

This letter was sent to Turning Point USA, the Network of Enlightened Women, and the Young Americans for Freedom—Fox News reported that College Republicans are “not an officially recognized student organization.” The clubs have been placed on interim suspension “pending resolution of the allegations.” This interim suspension includes a temporary inability to reserve university space.

Cawthorn’s director of communications Micah Bock responded to a request for comment, emailing The Dispatch Fact Check: “To my understanding the burden rests on the University to prove a violation. The university hasn’t proven one yet have they?”

In a statement provided to The Dispatch Fact, a University of Florida spokesperson said, “In accordance with our standard practice, the university has not taken, and would not take, action against a student or registered student group based on the viewpoint they represent or the content of their speech.” The statement notes that the university has photographic evidence of students at the event without masks and not social distancing, as well as text messages showing the groups were aware that they needed to file paperwork for the event. Steve Orlando, Assistant Vice President for Communications, told The Dispatch Fact Check that the evidence cannot be publicly shared “as it is protected under federal student privacy law (FERPA).”

UF TPUSA’s secretary told Fox News that she’d heard the president of College Republicans—which is not affiliated with the university—would be reserving the field. Per the University of Florida’s Campus Events and Gathering Policies in response to COVID-19, “the university is not scheduling new non-UF person, group, or organization requests for in person activities at University Properties.” The president of the school’s TPUSA chapter made different claims regarding the situation, with UF’s campus paper The Independent Florida Alligatorreporting that he stated in his appeal to the university that he had not reserved the event space because he thought it wasn’t necessary to reserve public property. The president said similar things to Breitbart, which quotes him as saying, “We didn’t properly reserve the space, and because of that, they say we violated their ‘use of space’ policy.”

The university web page for Norman Field states that the field “can be reserved for special events,” a message that Wayback Machine archives of the page show has been present for some time. 

If you have a claim you would like to see us fact check, please send us an email at factcheck@thedispatch.com. If you would like to suggest a correction to this piece or any other Dispatch article, please email corrections@thedispatch.com.

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Matt Upton
Mar 29, 2021

So the conservative group violated university procedures by not reserving the space, and their punishment is not being able to reserve space. This seems proportional, and really it seems like everyone got what they wanted out of the deal. If the group knew meeting without reserving the space and not following the COVID guidelines would likely put them on some sort of suspension, this is the outcome they wanted.

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Pat Riot
Mar 30, 2021

So pro-Republican organizations on campus are mask deniers just like all organized Republicans. Shocker.

One thing Americans have learned in this pandemic is that in our country today, all of our country's assholes vote Republican now. These people used to be spread between parties, but now they have all managed to find a single political home.

The people who refuse to wear a mask are the same ones who will urinate in a public pool because a little bit of urine won't hurt anything. The same ones who will drive home drunk from the bar because they feel like they drive better that way and only their own feelings matter. The same people, in short, who will ruin everything for everybody else because they can.

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