Like many colleges and universities, Loyola University New Orleans (my alma mater), a private Jesuit university, has a student-run government organization. That student government organization had an opportunity to debate whether or not to officially recognize a recently-formed campus chapter of Turning Point USA, the late Charlie Kirk’s organization. The student government held a hearing, they heard the pitch, they listened to the students who opposed, and then they voted no.
That’s a perfectly natural process. It’s a competition in the marketplace of ideas — and Turning Point USA lost. And that should be the end of the story, except for the fact that Louisiana’s Republican leaders — including Governor Jeff Landry, Attorney General Liz Murrill, the state GOP chair, and the Louisiana Freedom Caucus — are freaking out about it. They’re acting like Loyola just outlawed free speech.
Obviously, Loyola isn’t banning anyone from talking. Nobody’s being silenced or canceled; miss me with that noise. This Turning Points USA chapter has already pulled itself together and is free to meet, to engage other students, build a website, publish a podcast, hand out flyers, whatever they want to do. The organization that officially represents all students in campus affairs simply said, “You don’t represent the university's values, you are off mission, and you do not get the official Loyola stamp of approval.”
And suddenly, Jeff Landry wants to investigate. He’s threatening to “look into it” and maybe withhold funding - funding that doesn’t even exist, because Loyola doesn’t get direct state money. Again, this is a private university! What are you gonna do, Jeff? Cancel kids’ scholarships that had nothing to do with this? Punish future generations of students (maybe even conservative ones!) because this group voted in a way that you didn’t like?
Give me a break. I’ve been saying it about Jeff Landry - just govern, man. Just do the work. Run the state. Administer. Nobody needs or wants you to be our life coach. Nobody elected you to be our conscience. Nobody sent you to Baton Rouge to set our moral compass. We’ve already got pastors and parents; we don’t need you pretending you can do it.
This is what’s so backwards about all of it: these are the same politicians who claim to believe in the free market of ideas. Well, the students hearing this case represent the free market — and they determined that Turning Point USA was not deserving of their endorsement.
If you actually believe in “free speech,” you have to accept when people use their free speech to say no to you. Don’t stomp your feet and wet your pants and pretend you’re somehow the victim of some injustice. That’s that victimhood-meets-entitlement attitude Landry’s pals can’t seem to hate hard enough when they think others are doing it. Massive hypocrisy here.
And here’s the other thing I guess nobody around here wants to say out loud: Loyola’s student government didn’t reject Turning Point because they’re conservative. They rejected them because Turning Point has become a vehicle for upholding white supremacy and promoting Christian nationalism. White supremacy and Christian nationalism hurts people. It hurts America.
Charlie Kirk got rich and famous teaching young conservatives that the only way to win was to be a menace to other people just trying to live their lives in peace. Charlie and his buddies targeted queer people, Black people, Jews, Muslims, immigrants, professors, teachers, and those groups and their allies have every right to say to Turning Point USA - no thanks. We don’t do that here.
So when Loyola students say, “That’s not in line with our Jesuit values of inclusion, compassion, and care for the marginalized,” we must give them credit - that’s moral clarity. That’s a university community defining itself, which is part of what kids go to university to learn how to do in the first place.
And that’s what makes this Loyola story so important, and why it’s ripping through the conservative media echo chamber. It’s a microcosm of the bigger fight we’re having in America right now; we are in a fight over who gets to decide what our values are. Do we trust people to make their own decisions and respect those decisions? Or do give that over to politicians who want to shove their ideology down everyone else’s throat because it plays well on Fox News?
Loyola’s students made their decision democratically, with transparency and integrity. The governor didn’t like the outcome, so he wants to change the rules. That’s not leadership. That’s proof that you are afraid that your vision of what the world should be like will be rejected by those who have to live in it. What if instead you stood by your ideas and tried actual persuasion?
So here’s my message to Jeff Landry and everyone clutching their pearls over Loyola’s student vote: Free speech means sometimes you lose the argument. And when that happens, don’t call the cops, don’t threaten the university, and don’t you dare try to weaponize our state government to avenge your hurt feelings and punish a roomful of 20 year olds that had the audacity to say that they think this organization isn’t a good fit for Loyola University New Orleans.
Regroup. Reflect. Learn from it. Try again if you want.
The students at Loyola just showed us how democracy actually works. The least our democratically elected governor could do is take notes.