Whitman College/ Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license./Author: Adamsofen at English Wikipedia.
Whitman College, located in Walla Walla, Washington, promises every student on its campus “freedom of expression and association.” Unless, it seems, they are Republican.
According to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), when members of the Whitman Republican Club applied to become a college-affiliated student organization, “they had every reason to expect approval through the same review process as any other group.”
After all, ideological groups such as Climate Justice Coalition and Planned Parenthood Generation Action have a formal affiliation.
The student senate, however, unanimously rejected their application. 25-0.
Was it something they had done? Was it something they forgot? No, the record points somewhere else: It was what they believed.
Immediately before the vote, members of the Associated Students of Whitman College’s Senate grilled the club’s representatives about their political views rather than limiting their questions to the club’s organization, constitution, or eligibility. Instead of using viewpoint-neutral criteria, senators asked probing, ideological questions like, “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?” and “President Trump has made life hard for all international students. When you don’t get affiliated, what is your plan?”
At the end of the discussion, one senator made their objection remarkably explicit: “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 senators didn’t identify any problem with the group’s application or reason it would not be eligible for recognition. Despite “creating equal and inclusive opportunities” in the ASWC’s own mission, they told the students to scrap their plans, scrub their name, and make their mission more palatable to the senators reviewing it.
FIRE notes it is “viewpoint discrimination, pure and simple.”
The @whitmancollege Republican Club was unanimously denied recognition after student senators pressed club members to criticize the GOP and President Trump — all while recognizing Planned Parenthood and climate change groups.
This is viewpoint discrimination, pure and simple. pic.twitter.com/KUxDRz0814
— FIRE (@TheFIREorg) September 2, 2026
FIRE notes that without official recognition and affiliation, the Republican Club “loses access to funding, institutional support, and resources other student groups receive.”
FIRE sent a letter to the college urging them to ensure the club gets a viewpoint-neutral decision this fall.
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