United Campus Workers of Arizona is gathering signatures on a petition to ban Turning Point USA from Arizona university campuses.
UCW's petition will be delivered to the Arizona Board of Regents at their meeting on Nov. 16 in Tucson. The petition has collected more than 560 signatures and was endorsed by four ASU clubs: Black Graduate Student Association Executive Board at ASU, Young Democratic Socialists of America at ASU, TransFam at ASU and Rainbow Coalition at ASU Executive Board.
UCW of Arizona has a goal to collect 800 signatures before the meeting.
Emma Martinez, the president of TransFam and a junior studying fashion, said their organization signed on to the petition because of the continued spread of disinformation and violence that stems from TPUSA.
"We have decided that TPUSA is an organization that promotes hate, and as an extension violence, as well as spreading hateful disinformation," Martinez said.
The petition specifically cites an incident at the University of Arizona in which an assistant professor was asked anti-LGBTQ+ questions on film by a member of TPUSA regarding his experience with drag. The second incident cited in the petition involved ASU instructor David Boyles, who was in a similar altercation with members of TPUSA on the Tempe campus that left Boyles with minor injuries. That incident is currently being investigated by ASUPD.
"Ideally, I would think (ABOR) will ban TPUSA from all three major state universities, as well as remove their corresponding club on campus from ASU," Martinez said.
Kelly Baur, an organizer with UCW of Arizona, said despite violence on both UA and ASU campuses being from members affiliated with Turning Point’s national organization, it doesn’t take away from the tension that student chapters of the organization bring to the universities.
"It's not like student organizations don't share the same values as the organization that they're affiliated with on a national level," Baur said. "We think that's an important thing to keep in mind."
In a written statement from President Michael Crow on Oct. 14, he said he condemned the altercation involving Boyles.
"Let me assure all of you that ASU will do all that we can to end the bullying and intimidation of our faculty members by Turning Point USA and to reduce threats against the members of the ASU community which arise from such actions," Crow said.
Edited by Shane Brennan, Sadie Buggle and Angelina Steel.
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