Loyola University New Orleans’s student government has denied a Turning Point USA chapter from becoming a registered student organization for the second time.
On Wednesday night, the Student Government Association (SGA) again voted to reject the chapter, repeating an October decision. The chapter’s first denial led Turning Point students to appeal to the school’s Court of Review, which they won, sending the case back to the student government as required by the student handbook.
The student government did not provide a reason for issuing a second denial.
Loyola New Orleans law student Ethan Estis, who advised the undergraduate Turning Point USA students during the appeal, told Fox News that the decision is “pure politics.” He also questioned whether the Student Government Association enforced its own rules during the first meeting.
“Before the meeting even started, the room was apparently at ‘capacity,’ and the SGA VP said ‘people need to leave’ so that they [SGA] could ‘not face a fire marshal violation’ otherwise ‘campus police will be removing people,'” Estis explained.
“Unlike the last SGA meeting, none of these procedures within the SGA, such as wanting to be within the fire marshal capacity threshold, entering executive session, etc., were followed last time,” Estis added. “It was clear they aimed to follow and use the rules to their benefit, though I am skeptical how far they were allowed to interpret them.”
“Some of these statements were absolutely appalling because these meetings are open to everyone, including members of the public, and their failure to consider the large number of folks who would attend lies on them, not the spectators,” he said.
Estis said at least one member of the student government wanted to hold the meeting without spectators, even though the meetings are open to the public.
“At one point, before the meeting started, one senator asked if there could be a motion raised to begin the meeting ‘only with undergraduate students in the room present’ to which the VP responded, ‘Unfortunately, our bylaws do not allow such power to be authorized,'” Estis said.
