Whitman College Senate Votes 25-0 to Reject Republican Club

Adriana Stone 0 1 min read

Whitman College Senate Votes 25-0 to Reject Republican Club

Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington, says every student has “freedom of expression and association.” But that promise appears to have a major exception: students who want to organize as Republicans.

According to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, or FIRE, members of the Whitman Republican Club applied for official college affiliation expecting to go through the same review process as any other student organization. Other ideological groups, including the Climate Justice Coalition and Planned Parenthood Generation Action, already have formal affiliation.

Instead, the Associated Students of Whitman College Senate rejected the Republican Club’s application by a unanimous 25-0 vote.

The issue, according to the record described by FIRE, was not a missing document or a problem with the club’s constitution. Senators focused heavily on the group’s political beliefs and pressed its representatives to answer questions about the Republican Party and President Trump.

One question asked, “On the 2024 republican party platform subsection 18, what is your club’s take? Will you call the republican party out for things like this?” Another senator asked, “President Trump has made life hard for all international students. When you don’t get affiliated, what is your plan?”

Those questions went beyond whether the club met ordinary organizational or eligibility standards. They put the students in the position of defending or distancing themselves from Republican positions before their club could be recognized.

One senator made the objection especially clear, saying, “You can name yourselves whatever you want, but the language of your constitution is in direct contrast to our own constitution. I would suggest that you scrub the title and make a debate club.”

The student senators did not identify a specific flaw that made the application ineligible. That is especially notable because the ASWC mission speaks of “creating equal and inclusive opportunities.” Instead of approving the group under viewpoint-neutral rules, the senators told its members to change the club’s name and make its mission more acceptable to them.

FIRE calls the decision “viewpoint discrimination, pure and simple.” Without official recognition, the Republican Club loses access to funding, institutional support, and other resources available to recognized student organizations.

FIRE sent Whitman College a letter urging the school to give the club a viewpoint-neutral decision this fall.

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