MHCC SHOULDN'T BE IN THE NATION'S CULTURE WAR
NATIONAL POLITICAL ORGANIZATIONS THREATEN TO TURN A PLACE OF LEARNING INTO A PARTISAN BATTLEFIELD
Our community has been in an uproar these last few weeks about
Turning Point USA (TPUSA) taking official steps to becoming a recognized
student club at MHCC, and The Advocate thought it was time
to weigh in.
Let’s keep this simple. We can save heady conversations about what
free speech is for another day. Turning Point USA becoming a club at
MHCC is a bad idea because it is outside the realm of the common
understanding of what an intramural club should be.
We’ve all likely been to college, and we’re aware there is a charter
that says what clubs can and can’t be — we’re not talking about that.
We’re referring to common sense.
Clubs are for a handful of students who like frisbee golf. They are
not for political organizations with eight-digit budgets that are overtly
trying to influence the school’s culture. Is there a hard, fast line in
the sand that explicitly defines these parameters? No, but discerning
students absolutely know it when they see it, and it’s pedantic to imply
otherwise.
While student responses in every direction this week have been
tremendous, it is still hard to picture a near future where Turning
Point doesn’t become a club. Bureaucracy abhors a vacuum. If at all
possible, we hope it doesn’t happen, politics aside, to avoid opening
pandora’s box. If the Turning Point folks are in the courtyard every
week competing for students’ attention and opinions, it’s only a matter
of time until adversarial groups pop up as well. Why wouldn’t they?
In fact, the Sunrise Movement (a youth-led organization advocating
for climate action and the Green New Deal) is currently applying
for club status, and there are discussions about Young Democratic Socialists
of America submitting their own application for club status at
MHCC. We run the risk of our campus becoming a series of satellite
offices for outside interests rather than a community of local students.
If MHCC cosigns Turning Point, then it’s fair game. The students
who just wanted to celebrate Japanese culture or play Magic: The
Gathering in peace shouldn’t have to sit through those meetings.
Of course, college should be a petri dish for different schools of
thought. What it shouldn’t be is a pawn in a culture war. An organization
this large and pernicious threatens every club at MHCC, as well
as every student who, ultimately, came to campus to learn rather than
get mired in partisanship.
But that’s just our two cents, and the jury’s not out yet. Please let us
know what you think in our poll by scanning the QR code or visiting our website.
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