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Student Senate at Whitman College Unanimously Rejects Republican Club
The Gateway Pundit ^ | September 8, 2026 | Margaret Flavin

Posted on 09/08/2026 12:03:56 PM PDT by Red Badger

Whitman College, located in Walla Walla, Washington, promises every student on its campus "freedom of expression and association." Unless, it seems, they are Republican.

According to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), when members of the Whitman Republican Club applied to become a college-affiliated student organization, "they had every reason to expect approval through the same review process as any other group."

After all, ideological groups such as Climate Justice Coalition and Planned Parenthood Generation Action have a formal affiliation.

The student senate, however, unanimously rejected their application. 25-0.

Per FIRE:

Was it something they had done? Was it something they forgot? No, the record points somewhere else: It was what they believed.

Immediately before the vote, members of the Associated Students of Whitman College’s Senate grilled the club’s representatives about their political views rather than limiting their questions to the club’s organization, constitution, or eligibility. Instead of using viewpoint-neutral criteria, senators asked probing, ideological questions like, “On the 2024 republican party platform subsection 18, what is your club’s take? Will you call the republican party out for things like this?” and “President Trump has made life hard for all international students. When you don’t get affiliated, what is your plan?”

At the end of the discussion, one senator made their objection remarkably explicit: “You can name yourselves whatever you want, but the language of your constitution is in direct contrast to our own constitution. I would suggest that you scrub the title and make a debate club.”

The senators didn’t identify any problem with the group’s application or reason it would not be eligible for recognition. Despite “creating equal and inclusive opportunities” in the ASWC’s own mission, they told the students to scrap their plans, scrub their name, and make their mission more palatable to the senators reviewing it.

FIRE notes it is "viewpoint discrimination, pure and simple."


TOPICS: Education; Local News; Military/Veterans; Society
KEYWORDS: plannedparenthood; republicanclub

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To: Red Badger

This is getting so tiresome. Universities are a combination of a lunatic asylum and a little piece of the Soviet Union under Stalin circa 1939. Oppressive, viciously paranoid and insane. There is no fixing them so pointing out that they aren’t living up to Free Speech is pointless. Its time to radically change them - get rid of public funding for any private college. For public universities, cut the curriculum back to the basics only. And create a faculty to administrator ratio of one to one. Fire any administrator that exceeds that ratio. And it really doesn’t matter which administrators get fired to get to that ratio.


21 posted on 09/08/2026 2:01:25 PM PDT by Opinionated Blowhard (When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.)
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To: Redmen4ever

If they have students with guaranteed student loans, Pell grants, or GI Bill benefits, if any faculty have received federal grants, if it qualifies as a not for profit, it is under the shadow of all federal regs.

At least that’s the way it is for any instution thought to be harboring conservatives or Christians.


22 posted on 09/08/2026 2:18:15 PM PDT by sphinx
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To: Mr. Lucky

Whitman, accepts federal student loan money and other federal funding. It may be private, but it’s subject to Federal anti-discrimination laws. They are going to get sued.


23 posted on 09/08/2026 2:24:21 PM PDT by The Unknown Republican
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To: Mr. Lucky

>>The 1st Amendment doesn’t govern the conduct of private parties. This whackodoodle leftist college can no more be compelled to recognize a Republican club than Notre Dame or Liberty University could be compelled to recognize a Satanic club.

If they take the government’s money, they are not truly a “private” party. It’s the same issue that forced the Citadel and VMI to admit women. Now, if we remove all government funding from this college, then they may do as they please.


24 posted on 09/08/2026 2:27:32 PM PDT by vikingd00d (chown -R us ~you/base)
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To: allendale

I would call the college a holier than thou privileged a&&holes.


25 posted on 09/08/2026 2:31:29 PM PDT by chopperk
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To: Redmen4ever
They can be the Hillsdale College of the left, as far as I would be concerned. BUT, big but, if they receive taxpayer money and if they claim to have academic freedom, they should be held accountable.

Which is why Hillsdale no longer received federal funds starting in 1984-85 school year and from Michigan in 2007-08.

26 posted on 09/08/2026 2:34:01 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
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To: Verginius Rufus

What was in subsection 18 of the 2024 Republican platform?

There is no subection 18.

https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/2024-republican-party-platform


27 posted on 09/08/2026 2:47:51 PM PDT by Steven Scharf
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To: Red Badger

Transfer to Hillsdale.


28 posted on 09/08/2026 2:50:54 PM PDT by reg45 (Barack 0bama: Gone but not forgiven.)
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To: Ford4000

Future HOA Committee members............


29 posted on 09/08/2026 2:54:54 PM PDT by Red Badger (Iryna Zarutska, May 22, 2002 Kyiv, Ukraine – August 22, 2025 Charlotte, North Carolina Say her name)
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To: Steven Scharf

Maybe it is item 18 on the agenda—to deport pro-Hamas radicals and to make campuses safe and patriotic again.


30 posted on 09/08/2026 2:59:57 PM PDT by Verginius Rufus
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To: Redmen4ever
Assuming (a) no taxpayer money is involved and (b) they disclose that being woke is a condition of admission, they should be able to do anything they want.

I think nowadays the "Bake the Cake" rule obtains. Latest example: In NY they're saying you have to do African-American styles or you're discriminating. Open to the public means all the public. This isn't your grandfather's free country anymore.

31 posted on 09/08/2026 3:34:38 PM PDT by Buttons12 ( )
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To: Red Badger

That same student senate would kill us all, if they could.


32 posted on 09/08/2026 5:13:51 PM PDT by simpson96
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To: Red Badger

The Black club is next.


33 posted on 09/08/2026 11:43:15 PM PDT by If You Want It Fixed - Fix It
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To: If You Want It Fixed - Fix It

Nope, the Jewish Club.............


34 posted on 09/09/2026 4:13:32 AM PDT by Red Badger (Iryna Zarutska, May 22, 2002 Kyiv, Ukraine – August 22, 2025 Charlotte, North Carolina Say her name)
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