Conservative student organization Turning Point USA’s (TPUSA) efforts towards a Davidson chapter move closer to fruition as it completes key administrative matters and establishes a clearer event plan for the year. As the chapter develops, TPUSA faces backlash within the Davidson community for bringing a right-wing group to campus and nationally for the ramifications of its Professor Watchlist.
TPUSA recently secured the support of a faculty advisor: Professor Dan Aldridge, an American history scholar with a specialization in African-American civil rights activism. With Aldridge’s approval, TPUSA fulfilled the final required step towards formalizing registration with Student Activities. Aldridge came to advise TPUSA not out of unwavering support for the club’s ideology, but rather because of an interest in viewpoint diversity on campus.
“All student groups of all student political persuasions should be represented on campus. They should not discriminate against right-wing students,” Aldridge said. “Right-wing students and right-wing groups have as much right to be on campus as anyone else. We should not encourage some acts and some types of political activism and discourage others. It’s a very bad practice that colleges do.”
On the student personnel side, TPUSA announced its executive board last week: President Oliver Genovese ‘28, Vice President Nikita Aleksii ‘28, Secretary Julien Ernoul ‘28 and Treasurer Michael Emerson ‘28. As he looks to take a passive advisory role, Aldridge indicated that students like these will drive organizational decision-making.
“I’m there to be of counsel and of assistance when needed, but largely the students can and should run this. From what I’ve seen of Oliver Genovese, he’s quite capable of it,” Aldridge said. Genovese discussed many ideas for the semester to assert TPUSA’s presence on campus, including a debating event, a political speaker and a week of programming decrying socialism. The club scheduled a Meet & Greet for the evening of Thursday, Oct. 17, exposing both the club’s 46 WildcatSync members and any interested prospective members to the club’s mission and activities. However, Genovese remains most excited for the debating event, where he would assume the role often played by TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk, who would set up on a common area of campus and field questions and arguments from students. He asserted the event would receive support from some of TPUSA’s national employees, who would travel to Davidson to table on campus in order to promote the event.
TPUSA also submitted its bylaws to WildcatSync. They stipulate that the President of TPUSA will serve a four-year term and enjoys veto power over any amendment to the bylaws, granting the President a longer tenure and more control than the leaders of other campus political organizations. Next fall, instead of an election from the entire membership, Genovese’s presidency will be up for a vote among the club’s officers.
TPUSA’s arrival on Davidson’s campus sparked significant, ongoing contention. The Davidsonian’s Instagram post reporting on TPUSA’s arrival saw 97 comments from users, with some condemning the announcement as “nothing to be proud of,” “absolutely insane,” and “such a disappointment.” Others celebrated it as “excellent news” and “encouraging political diversity.”
“I just tried to ignore the backlash,” Genovese said. “Whenever someone tries to bring something new or change, there’s always a lot of pushback. Over time, as it becomes adopted, people just kind of accept what it’s bringing.”
Aleksii also was disappointed by what he viewed as personal attacks for membership in a new organization.
“Those people that wrote such offensive commands, they don’t even know about us,” Aleksii said. “We’re really nice people, very respectful. We haven’t done anything yet. We just opened and those people already started writing offensive comments. I think it’s not acceptable.”
Genovese said he thinks that negative campus sentiment around TPUSA is driving prospective members away from the organization.
“We had around twenty people who said they would join but are scared of the social repercussions. We also had seven or eight international students who said they’re scared their visas would get revoked if they were to join,” Genovese said, referencing various text, email and in-person conversations he had with prospective members.
Nationally, TPUSA has also faced significant blowback for its Professor Watchlist. The project’s mission, according to the website, is “to expose and document college professors who discriminate against conservative students and advance leftist propaganda in the classroom.” The Watchlist is a publicly accessible online database that names and profiles professors accused of such behavior.
In a high profile case from Rutgers University, Professor Mark Bray, an expert on the left-wing political movement Antifa, fled to Spain after facing death threats, with his inclusion on the Professor Watchlist exposing him to significant online scrutiny.
The Professor Watchlist is relevant within the Davidson community. Two Davidson professors—Karen Bernd in the Biology Department and Isaac Bailey from the Communication Studies Department—were featured on the Professor Watchlist for defending diversity, equity and inclusion practices, among other things. Bailey, like Bray, faced death threats in the wake of his inclusion.
“I got some really nasty death threats that were primarily about the Watchlist. I’ve been in journalism since 1996 so I’m a little bit more accustomed to it, but these were actually called into Davidson College. My colleagues were actually much more concerned by it than I was,” Bailey said. “It did not change how I taught and wrote.”
Nonetheless, both professors said they are open-minded to TPUSA’s presence on campus as long as the chapter respects campus rules and norms on organizational conduct.
“My perspective is that it is a student organization among the many options Davidson students have established. If the interested students complete the steps required, then TPUSA will add its voice to the many options that our students have,” Bernd wrote in a statement to The Davidsonian.
Bailey expressed both a commitment to free expression and recognition that TPUSA chapter leadership is different from the people who reported him to the Watchlist.
“[TPUSA] is welcome on campus. The students doing this are not the people who put me on the Watchlist,” Bailey said.
“I am really big on trying to protect free expression rights, so I welcome a variety of different voices.”
Responding to fears over TPUSA’s extremism stemming from controversies like the Professor Watchlist, Genovese said he wants to separate Davidson’s TPUSA chapter from the views and actions of the national organization and other chapters.
“Aside from basic views you have to abide by, like our belief in limited government, capitalism, freedom of expression and the idea that America is the best country in the world, [TPUSA] is autonomous by the chapter,” Genovese said.
“Some schools are very extreme, but my goal is to make this a very moderate chapter and not be very divisive by focusing on issues like economics and immigration and finding common ground. Some chapters struggle with that and take way too extreme stances on social issues that I don’t agree with.”
