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Boston College Republicans say they’ve been under attack since Trump win
“We will no longer sit idly by while unhinged people openly defame the character of students who voted for President Trump.”
The Boston College Republicans say there have been “escalating attacks on conservative students” at the university in the days since Donald Trump won the election.
“Conservative students have been targeted on social media and on campus, being told that they condone rape, sexism, racism, and every other ‘ism’ in the English dictionary,” the club’s executive board wrote an op-ed in The Heights, BC’s student newspaper. “We will no longer sit idly by while unhinged people openly defame the character of students who voted for President Trump.”
In the letter, the group asked that members of the BC community “avoid shutting each other out,” and instead they encouraged “respectful political discussion.”
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“The country has spoken, and it is time for our community to come together around our shared values as Americans,” the group wrote.
James Markis, the former president and a current member of the BC Republicans, told Boston.com that a club member received backlash after reposting a post on social media that called for people not to let politics interfere with their friendships.
Markis also alleged that he was “hip-checked” by a fellow student.
Jack Dunn, a spokesperson for BC, said the university has “received no reports of students being targeted on social media or on campus as a result of the election.”
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While the club supports free speech, Markis said the “ad hominem attacks” and “vitriol” on campus is unwarranted.
“We were just calling for the temperature to be taken down,” he said.
MassGOP spokesman Logan Trupiano said the “challenges” faced by the BC Republicans are “deeply disheartening.”
“Ostracizing someone based on their political beliefs should never be tolerated, especially in a collegiate environment where students are meant to engage in learning and exchange diverse perspectives,” Trupiano wrote in an email to Boston.com in response to the club’s op-ed. “Disagreement over policy issues is one thing, but it is entirely out of bounds to attack someone’s character simply because they are on the opposite side of the political spectrum.”
A subsequent letter to the editor in The Heights, written by Robin Lee, was published in response to the BC Republicans’ statement.
In the letter, Lee pointed out the club’s “history of sponsoring hateful guest speakers,” including conservative political commentator Andrew Klavan and political scientist Hadley Arkes, who both received backlash from students for speaking at the university.
“Of course, merely harboring hateful voices doesn’t necessarily implicate BC Republicans in that hatred,” Lee wrote. “But it does call into question the legitimacy of a statement like ‘we call upon all students, faculty, and staff to reflect on their harmful words.’”
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Lee continued, writing that the BC Republicans’ op-ed “does not prove that conservative students have been bullied and harassed for their beliefs on a widespread scale.”
“BC Republicans’ statement merely reflects the group’s unpopularity on campus, that they have lost in the free marketplace of ideas,” Lee wrote.
Markis said the BC Republicans understand that college campuses “lean to the left.”
“We have no issue with that,” he said. “We chose to come to college.”
Overall, young voters preferred Harris over Trump by 4 points — 51% to 47%, according to a Tufts University analysis. Young women favored Kamala Harris to Trump by a 17-point margin, while young men preferred Trump by a 14-point margin.
On the day after the election, the university held a “Post-Election Pause,” a “collaborative, drop-in wellness space” for students to “engage with campus resources, wellness education, and self-care activities,” according to BC’s events calendar.
“They were essentially for people who were upset about the election result,” Markis said. “It didn’t seem like there was much response to if people were happy about the election.”
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Dunn said the dean of students offered to meet with the BC Republicans to “discuss any concerns they may have.”
The group accepted the invitation and met with BC’s administration on Friday.
“The administration is very committed to fostering dialogue on campus,” Markis told Boston.com following the meeting. “We are very appreciative of the work they are doing.”
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