Just months after Gov. Kim Reynolds signed into law a new campus free-speech measure, the conservative student group Turning Point USA is testing the waters with an application for official recognition from Southeastern Community College.

Turning Point USA, a student organization founded by firebrand Charlie Kirk in 2012, most recently drew attention in Iowa when they brought white nationalist commentator Nick Fuentes to Iowa State University in March.

That was weeks before Reynolds signed the campus free-speech law. The visit drew protesters and generated an outcry around safety and who should be allowed to speak on college campuses.

"We do have an application for a student group that is heavily right-winged in its mentality and presentation, and some label it as a hate group,” SCC President Michael Ash told the school's board of trustees, according to the Hawk Eye newspaper. About 3,000 students are enrolled at Southeastern Community College in Burlington.

“You will get, if you haven’t already, push-back from faculty and staff who think the group shouldn’t be sanctioned.”

Turning Point USA claims a presence at more than 1,300 campuses.

Recognizing Turning Point USA as a student organization would give the group access to school resources and funding, several trustees said at the May meeting.

"It’s one thing to allow people and support the right to free speech, and I think we all probably would. It’s another thing to finance it," trustee Jeff Heland said, the Hawk Eye reported.

“If they’re going to form a student Nazi group, I assume we would find a way to stop it because it’s a hate group,” another trustee, Lanny Hillyard, said.

Joel Allen, Turning Point USA SCC chapter president and a Burlington-native attending the college, said his chapter's main goal is to be sanctioned and gain access to college resources.

"There seems to be no reason as to why our chapter could not also receive access to the same funds that other clubs and organizations receive at SCC," Allen said in a statement to the Register. He said there's "simply no evidence that TPUSA promotes white supremacy ideas or is associated with any racist or hateful ideas at all."

Allen became involved in the organization after attending the group's annual Student Activist Summit in Palm Beach, Florida, in December. He said the application for official recognition from SCC was not timed to coincide with Reynolds' signing of the campus free-speech law.

Ash and the SCC board of trustees delayed a decision on Turning Point USA's application while they consult school legal advisers to develop a policy around what kind of organizations are allowed on campus that complies with the new law while preventing hate group and discriminatory activities.

“No stonewalling, no blacklisting, nothing along that line at all,” Ash said in a statement. “We're just trying to care of business as quickly as possible.”

Allen was more firm about the potential consequences of denying his chapter official recognition.

“Our right to uphold and share our ideas freely on campus is extremely important to us, and any attempt to deny any student the right to free speech would be an immoral and unconstitutional act," he said. "If SCC denies our application for official recognition, our chapter could possibly seek out legal help in order to protect free speech on campus.”

A campus free speech law had been debated for years, but lawmakers doubled their efforts after a federal court ruled in favor of a Christian group that argued it was discriminated against by the University of Iowa.

A nationwide USA Today investigation in April found that many Iowa laws bore many similarities to laws written by special interest groups. The investigation found that sections of the campus free speech law were basically the same as language found in model legislation drafted by the conservative Goldwater Institute.

In Iowa, however, there is still a question over how the law protecting campus free speech will be enforced.

“We support efforts to protect free speech at our community colleges and public universities,” said Staci Hupp, communications director for Iowa Department of Education. “Under the new law, complaints are directed to a college's governing board. The law doesn't provide a mechanism for state enforcement.”

Follow the Register on Facebook and Twitter for more news. Aaron Calvin can be contacted at acalvin@dmreg.com or on Twitter @aaronpcalvin.