Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama wasn’t happy with the “inflammatory” language found in the charter of a conservative club a group of students wanted to form, and so they temporarily denied their application.
The eager students were informed by the chair of the Campus Life Committee, Shannon Ashe, that they needed to update the language in the Young Americans for Freedom chapter before Samford would approve the request.
“We are looking for the YAF student group to amend or justify the inflammatory language listed in its Purpose,” Ashe wrote.
Because YAF was formed in the 1960s, Samford administration, including President Andrew Westmoreland, took issue with its antiquated language, specifically a line about communism:
[T]he market economy, allocating resources by the free play of supply and demand, is the single economic system compatible with the requirements of personal freedom and constitutional government … the forces of international Communism are, at present, the greatest single threat to these liberties; … the United States should stress victory over, rather than coexistence with, this menace …
In her e-mail to students, Ashe stated that saying “victory over, rather than coexistence with, this menace [communism],” may have been okay back then but it “does not hold the same in 2016.”
The charter in question is known as the Sharon Statement and is considered to be “one of the most important articulations of modern conservatism,” according to YAF spokeswoman Emily Jashinsky.
President Westmoreland assured that Samford is not “a bastion of support for Communism” and didn’t take kindly to media accusations to the contrary. He also claimed the school didn’t “reject” the club but only delayed its formation until the language of the founding statement could be agreed upon.
According to Jashinsky, both parties have finally reached an agreement, and the YAF chapter will be able to form without any changes to the Sharon Statement. However, Samford will not be officially approving the group until May next year. That’s unfortunate for the one student who spearheaded the YAF application. She will have already graduated.
“She will not be able to enjoy the fruits of her labor,” Jashinsky said. “Furthermore, there’s no guarantee the chapter will ever be approved.”
The YAF website posted the complete Sharon Statement online and isn't letting Samford off the hook just yet.
H/T The College Fix