Point Loma Nazarene University’s Student Life and Formation hosted a conversation last week regarding the Associated Student Body’s recent decision to deny a Turning Point USA chapter on campus. Students, including some members of the elected leadership board of TPUSA, attended.
An email from PLNU’s dean of students sent on Nov. 10 said the event, which was held on Nov. 12, would be “a space to talk, to listen and to process together.”
The conversation was a Q&A-style, where students could ask the panel questions about the chapter’s rejection. The panel was comprised of Jason Cha, PLNU’s dean of students, Beth Denney, director of residential life, Melanie Wolf, dean of student care and counseling, and Connor Mathisen, director of community life.
The email said, “The intention is not to debate or persuade, but to practice the kind of respectful and authentic presence that reflects the heart of our community.” According to Wolf, these conversations have been happening campus-wide, including dialogue spaces for staff and faculty.
“The commitment from the university was to provide an opportunity for dialogue for our faculty community, our staff community and our student community,” Wolf said during the event. “That’s really the role that we have here is to host this space for some dialogue.”
The meeting began with students sharing one word to describe how they were feeling. Most of the words used were “curious,” “listening” and “interested.” The panel acknowledged these emotions and took the time to clarify why TPUSA was denied.
“It is very common for club proposals to be denied,” Mathisen said during the event. “We’ve actually received about 10 proposals already this year, and a majority of them have actually been denied at one point. So a lot of that has to do with depending on what the club’s asking for resource-wise, or the programming that’s available.”
Mathisen told The Point that if an outside organization is funding a club, then there’s a higher possibility the club won’t get approved; they need to be student-led and funded by ASB.
Many students expressed their frustration with the rejection during the event, and Mathisen explained the differences between the values of TPUSA and PLNU. He said that PLNU’s mission statement, which specifies the purpose and mission of ASB, doesn’t align with TPUSA’s Professor Watchlist.
“[There’s] language around the purpose of ASB … to provide constructive communication between all members of the community, staff and faculty,” Mathisen said. “So part of discussion for every club is, ‘Is this club going to facilitate construe time communication?’”
During the event, TPUSA’s elected leaders reiterated that they would not participate in the watchlist; however, there are other reasons why TPUSA was denied, which were specified in PLNU President Kerry Fulcher’s statement found on the university website.
Abby Pickett, a third-year philosophy major, attended the discussion and said that it didn’t feel productive but tense.
“It felt like I was in a meeting that I wasn’t included in because the TPUSA leaders and the Point Loma leaders were having conversations with one another about stuff they had already been in conversation with each other about, giving everyone else in the room zero context,” Pickett said. “[They] were just kind of having their own little tussles.”
Pickett said that during the meeting, the panel offered solutions to the TPUSA leaders on how they could get a conservative club started on campus.
“I feel like there was solution after solution after solution presented to the TPUSA student group, and they were not willing to take it because they were being stubborn; they were holding onto their pride,” Pickett said. “That behavior doesn’t align with the mission they said they had with the club initially.”
Isa Darisay