James Hoyt

When the University of Kansas chapter of Young Americans for Freedom met on Oct. 13, chairman Gabe Lepinski expected protesters to show up.

But the meeting went off without a hitch.

“We’ve had problems before; we didn’t expect there to be less problems this time," Lepinski said. "Social justice warriors need to rest sometimes, I guess.”

Lepinski had good reason to expect opposition: his fledgling student organization has faced a path rife with opposition this semester. Footage of two preliminary meetings with activists opposed to the club in attendance spread like wildfire through conservative media. An article at conservative outlet College Fixcalled the protesters a "mob," and Fox News devoted airtime to them too.

On the other end of the political spectrum, YouTube personality Kat Blaque defended the activists' viewpoints. Lepinski said the "gang" showed up and staged a "radical leftist ambush" after the group's Facebook page announced details about the meeting. He said he and his group were called "white supremacists" at their second unofficial meeting.

The KU group is a chapter of Young Americans for Freedom, or YAF, a national conservative organization founded in 1960. It counts many current and former elected officials as alumni, and former president Ronald Reagan was an honorary chairman.

At KU, YAF is a political enclave inside another political enclave.

The city of Lawrence, the home of KU, is traditionally a politically blue pixel in the solid red rectangle of Kansas, with a history of activism dating back before the Civil War, when it was an abolitionist stronghold. The university's reputation for liberal politics and relative cosmopolitanism earned it the nickname "Snob Hill" from neighboring Kansas State University.

Last year, KU became a flashpoint in the wave of activism in the wake of protests over racism at the University of Missouri. KU held tense town hall and student senate meetings where students voiced concerns.

A string of recent incidents has underscored the volatile air. In September, a transgender KU student reported being harassed while walking down Jayhawk Boulevard, a well-lit central artery through campus. And a banner reading "Black Lives Matter" was stolen from a campus ministry building. Anonymous sidewalk chalkings regularly appear bearing messages of support for Donald Trump and links to YouTube videos purporting to show the "truth" about the Black Lives Matter movement. Lepinski said he had not seen or heard about the chalk messages.

In recent semesters, though an attempt to impeach three student senate executives failed, student activists successfully campaigned for the resignation of a school dean. Demonstrators from a group called Rock Chalk Invisible Hawk marched to Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little's office to voice their views to staff and faculty.

Amid this charged campus climate, YAF's third meeting -- the group's first as an official organization -- stayed firmly on the rails. More than a dozen members, prospective members and others interested in the conversation gathered in a spacious alcove in the student union, as a campus police officer occasionally paced into view outside the room. Faculty adviser Art Hall, a professor in the business school, introduced himself to the group and promptly left them to their own devices.

Hall, a free markets researcher, was involved in an open records lawsuit pertaining to charges of academic influence by the Wichita-based Koch brothers, wealthy executives who have contributed millions of dollars to universities as well as to conservative political causes. Hall's involvement in YAF is critical, as KU requires student organizations to have a faculty adviser to gain official status and to seek funding from the student senate.

The group watched and discussed Republican Utah Senator Mike Lee’s debate performance against his Democratic challenger, Misty Snow, a transgender woman. They also discussed the possibility of countering a future campus carry protest with a table, to educate passerby on firearms and gun laws.



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The spectrum of conservatism on display ran the gamut from constitutional conservatives like Lepinski, to self-identified Donald Trump supporters and an attendee who floated the idea of a visit from alt-right firebrand Milo Yiannopoulos.

Lepinski, who said he identifies with the wing of conservatism exemplified by Senators Lee, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, told USA TODAY College that he started the Young Americans for Freedom chapter as a response to a growing wave of progressive politics across American college campuses, and to provide as an alternative to the KU College Republicans chapter, which is more focused on advancing the Republican party's cause and assisting campaigns.

"I’ve been openly mocked and berated (in classes) for saying that 'a Fox News article says' because people say that’s a conservative source and not viable on this progressive campus," Lepinski said. “I just want to spread conservatism across the ultra-liberal campuses of today and really give conservative students the cojones to get out there and speak their minds."

One of YAF's major goals is to end the practice of so-called "intellectual safe spaces."

"The most important ideas to protect are the controversial ones, because those need to be debated so we can decide whether or not they’re good ideas or harmful ideas. I’m just looking for freedom of intellectual thought and freedom of controversial ideas on campus," Lepinski said. "There’s a difference between hate speech and controversial speech, and I’m looking to protect controversial speech at the University of Kansas, and I look to do that by eliminating these nonsense terms like 'intellectual safe spaces.'"



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Freshman Juliet Ramsdell said she's drawn to the club because it allows her to express her conservative politics outside of a party context.

"I don't really consider myself a Republican. I am voting for Donald Trump. I'm for free speech, I'm for being able to express your opinions without receiving backlash for it," she said. "I'm definitely for protecting the ideals of the Constitution."

Trinity Carpenter, a student who was a prominent opposing figure in the videos, said she felt the language used at the meetings she attended was discriminatory and that YAF's goal of ending safe spaces is counterproductive to fostering an inclusive community.

"For a group who is already so privileged on this campus to feel like it is their job to promote destroying safe spaces or having the ability to say discriminatory things without push back, without others, is just outrageous to me," Carpenter said. "A big issue I have with the rhetoric is they think they can dictate what a safe space is to marginalized students."

Student Mercedes Bounthapanya said she believes physical and intellectual safe spaces are inextricably linked.

"The feeling of being safe has something to do with both mental and physical being. You cannot separate the two -- it's intersectional," she said.

Tensions on campus led to the creation of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Advisory Group, a board composed of KU students, staff and faculty that aims to "discover and inform our campus community of patterns of discrimination, including lack of respect, inclusion, and equity in our educational and research environments and social communities."

According to KU, 69.7% of students identify as white, as do 76.7% of faculty.

"Just because we're having the national climate that we're having and we have the presidential candidates that we have doesn't mean you get to be emboldened and disrespect marginalized students," Carpenter said.

She added that there's a difference between claiming "victimhood" and recognizing concepts like systemic racism. She said she's grateful for the financial aid that allows her to go to college.

"I don't deny things that exist just because I think it would serve me in being a victim, just like I would hope they wouldn't deny things that exist to deny their privilege."

Both student activists agree that what they don't want is a war.

"At the end of the day, YAF can continue as they are and we can continue as we are, but you would think someone's goal wouldn't be trying to be divisive like that on a college campus," Carpenter said.

"I don’t think there’s an eternal struggle between progressives and conservatives. As a conservative, I don’t believe everyone is a victim to the society they live in," Lepinski said.



James Hoyt is a University of Kansas student and a USA TODAY College correspondent.

This story originally appeared on the USA TODAY College blog, a news source produced for college students by student journalists. The blog closed in September of 2017.