By Rachel Allen
rallen19@uwyo.edu
UW College Republicans RSO claims that the university’s anti discrimination policy undermines the integrity of political clubs.
According to the UW Regulation 8-234 concerning RSO’s, “membership in a University RSO shall be open to any student of the University community who is willing to subscribe to the stated aims of the organization and meets its stated obligations.”
The regulation continues to list traits and characteristics that cannot influence and RSO’s decision to accept a new member. These traits include “race, gender, religion, color, national origin, disability, age, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, creed, ancestry, political belief or any other applicable protected category.”
Regulation 8-234 includes an exception for religious beliefs for the sake of secular RSOs, but there is no exception for political groups such as Students for Bernie Sanders, College Democrats and College Republicans.
“As a member of the University of Wyoming College Republicans the UW Regulation 8-234 undermines our clubs integrity,” Joe Jackson, treasurer of the College Republicans and political science sophomore, said. “We are a political party specified club so it undermines our integrity to be forced to grant full voting membership and the opportunity to seek officer positions, regardless of their political beliefs.”
London Dov Homer-Wambeam, the president of both the Secular Student Alliance and Students for Bernie Sanders, looked at it differently.
“For both organizations I don’t see these regulations as interfering,” Homer-Wambeam said. “Bernie Sanders’ ideas should and do appeal to people in multiple political parties. Restricting access to the group would only ostracize potential supporters.”
Jackson said the College Republicans RSO has not been heavily affected by the regulation as of the present.
“To our club’s knowledge we have had no democrats trying to infiltrate the College Republicans, as well as a Republican doing the same to the Collegiate Democrats,” he said. “This begs the question why have a political party-based club, when in effect we can’t enforce the fact that we are party specific.”
UW Regulation 8-234 includes qualification for recognition, which lists the requirements of student organizations in order to become registered.
“Student organizations seeking designation as a recognized student organization (RSO) shall submit a statement, criteria for membership, rules of procedure and a current list of officers to the Director of the Wyoming Union,” according to Section-4a.
“I think including an addendum would be the best solution for this issue,” Jackson said. “The Collegiate Democrats, as well as the College Republicans deserve to be able to be proponents of their own identity.”
Homer-Wambeam’s said he did not think this should be the case.
“I do not think there should be a similar exception for political organizations,” he said. “Politics have become too divisive in this country and we need to promote open discussion.”
Jackson said he is not opposed to welcoming students with differing political opinions but rather if it would change the fundamentals of the club itself.
“Even without this regulation, our club welcomes individuals even with differing political ideologies to sit in and participate in our meetings. The true issue of this regulation is that we are mandated to allow democrats to become a voting member and run for club officer positions, just as we would be able to do the same to the Collegiate Democrats,” he said. “If we wanted a club that was non-ideological we would have joined the political science club to discuss politics and policy.”
