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St. John’s University student government in Queens just twice told conservative students “not here” when they asked to form a Turning Point USA chapter, a slap in the face to young Americans who want to engage in honest debate instead of being shushed. A proud Catholic university has shrugged while student leaders bar a mainstream, nonviolent conservative organization from being an official part of campus life, and hardworking parents should be furious.
The university’s spokesperson made a procedural argument — that Student Government, Inc. controls approvals and that only a handful of new groups were accepted this cycle — but procedure is no excuse when the result is ideological censorship. Students were told to reapply or seek department sponsorship, as if conservatives should be funneled into the back room while left-leaning groups get the front stage.
This isn’t an isolated incident; it is part of a pattern where student governments and university bureaucracies across the country willfully block conservative student groups, from Loyola New Orleans to California Lutheran and beyond. When campuses become gated communities for only one worldview, they betray the very purpose of higher education — to expose young people to competing ideas, not to silence them.
Catholic institutions like St. John’s should remember their own tradition: the Church has long championed the dignity of the human person and the contest of ideas, not litmus tests enforced by campus elites. It is a moral and intellectual failing when Catholic administrators or student leaders choose the comfort of ideological conformity over the inconvenient work of forming thoughtful, robust students. Those who run our religious colleges must answer to parents and parishioners who expect more than partisan gatekeeping.
The national surge in interest for Turning Point USA chapters after the tragic killing of TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk shows students are hungry for alternatives to the leftist orthodoxy on campus — the group reported massive spikes in inquiries and momentum that should be welcomed, not blocked. Universities that turn away that enthusiasm are sending a clear message: conservative students will be marginalized, not treated as equals in the marketplace of ideas.
Conservative Americans need to meet this moment with resolve: back the students, show up at meetings, support legal protections for campus speech, and hold administration boards accountable to parents and donors. If our colleges will not protect free expression, then citizens must demand it — loudly, persistently, and with the patriotic conviction that made this country a place where ideas compete, not where dissent is gagged.
