Did the University of Florida Suspend Conservative Student Groups?

The groups had an event that allegedly violated campus COVID-19 guidelines.

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Earlier this month, Rep. Madison Cawthorn claimed that the University of Florida had suspended conservative clubs on campus:

The conservative clubs in question held a joint event on campus and it is alleged the clubs had not filed the proper paperwork to reserve the space, Norman Field. The university also stated in a letter to the clubs that allegedly “event attendees were observed not complying with the Student Behavioral Expectations in Response to COVID-19 and the Campus Events Guidelines in Response to COVID-19 policies by failing to wear appropriate face coverings and/or maintain appropriate physical distance.”

This letter was sent to Turning Point USA, the Network of Enlightened Women, and the Young Americans for Freedom—Fox News reported that College Republicans are “not an officially recognized student organization.” The clubs have been placed on interim suspension “pending resolution of the allegations.” This interim suspension includes a temporary inability to reserve university space.

Cawthorn’s director of communications Micah Bock responded to a request for comment, emailing The Dispatch Fact Check: “To my understanding the burden rests on the University to prove a violation. The university hasn’t proven one yet have they?”

In a statement provided to The Dispatch Fact, a University of Florida spokesperson said, “In accordance with our standard practice, the university has not taken, and would not take, action against a student or registered student group based on the viewpoint they represent or the content of their speech.” The statement notes that the university has photographic evidence of students at the event without masks and not social distancing, as well as text messages showing the groups were aware that they needed to file paperwork for the event. Steve Orlando, Assistant Vice President for Communications, told The Dispatch Fact Check that the evidence cannot be publicly shared “as it is protected under federal student privacy law (FERPA).”

UF TPUSA’s secretary told Fox News that she’d heard the president of College Republicans—which is not affiliated with the university—would be reserving the field. Per the University of Florida’s Campus Events and Gathering Policies in response to COVID-19, “the university is not scheduling new non-UF person, group, or organization requests for in person activities at University Properties.” The president of the school’s TPUSA chapter made different claims regarding the situation, with UF’s campus paper The Independent Florida Alligatorreporting that he stated in his appeal to the university that he had not reserved the event space because he thought it wasn’t necessary to reserve public property. The president said similar things to Breitbart, which quotes him as saying, “We didn’t properly reserve the space, and because of that, they say we violated their ‘use of space’ policy.”

The university web page for Norman Field states that the field “can be reserved for special events,” a message that Wayback Machine archives of the page show has been present for some time. 

If you have a claim you would like to see us fact check, please send us an email at factcheck@thedispatch.com. If you would like to suggest a correction to this piece or any other Dispatch article, please email corrections@thedispatch.com.

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  6. Deleted Comment

    This comment has been deleted

    1. BadgerBill

      Exactly! You’re not being a tough guy rebel, you’re just being a jerk. Stop already!

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    Ian Fillmore

    Question: Did the University of Florida Suspend Conservative Student Groups? Answer: Yes. Fact check complete.

    Follow-up Question: Is there more to the story? Answer: Of course there is, and the whole thing sounds quite banal once you find out more. But this is just supposed to be a fact check, not a reported story.

    So what we really have here is a reported story about some internal conflict at the University of Florida. That's not really something that usually rises to the level of Dispatch-worthy news. So instead we'll call it a "fact check" of a tweet by a rookie Congressman (although even then it still seems like a stretch). Surely we can find more consequential claims to fact check, no?

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      Aylene Wright

      I think that Cawthorn, a Member of Congress, making allegations about conservative groups being "silenced" is what's being fact checked. Not whether the groups were suspended for a legitimate cause.

      But there is a possibility of double standards and selective enforcement of the COVID-19 policies against these groups, the fact check would have been improved by addressing. But that would likely require much more effort / time to investigate & I can understand why the FC was released without it. If this had come out a week later with that information, it's quite likely Cawthorn will be getting attention for another attempt to sow outrage and grievances by conservatives against "the libs" & no one will care about this anymore.

      But it does occur to me that doesn't really go with TDs overall model to prioritize getting it right before getting it first or fast. And while I do think this was a claim reasonable to fact check, I have seen TD attempts to fact check other hyperbolic claims by politicians that come off as unnecessarily nitpicky.

      I also would appreciate more transparency about how TD decides what to fact-check. There are some on Facebook memes that I assume TD fact checks as part of the partnership with Facebook, but I don't know which of the other FCs were requested by FB.

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      scott

      I just don't agree with this. He's still a Congressman, rookie or not. And it wasn't really a congressman just saying, "Hey, they suspended this group at UF. End of Story, nothing to add." He said they suspended this group to silence them. Which is a serious allegation, but it appears to be untrue. There is a huge difference in what the congressman said and what happened. He either lied or didn't even look into it before leveling the charge.



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      1. Rbmodic1

        It has become apparent to me and many others that everything Madison Cawthorn says is in need of fact checking. I hope that the Dispatch keeps fact checking Rep. Cawthorn. He will say whatever he thinks will rile and anger the Trump Base. He and those around him want and need their support.

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        1. BadgerBill

          Agreed. This is of a piece with Fox News headlines and screaming about “cancel culture”. It just reinforces the notion “the libs” are trying to “destroy our country”. I’m so tired of it. Just a bunch of crybabies. A family foundation deciding to stop publishing certain Dr. Seuss books does not constitute the end of the world as we know it. (REM reference). Just stop making stuff up and feeling sorry for yourself.

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  8. Mwupton

    So the conservative group violated university procedures by not reserving the space, and their punishment is not being able to reserve space. This seems proportional, and really it seems like everyone got what they wanted out of the deal. If the group knew meeting without reserving the space and not following the COVID guidelines would likely put them on some sort of suspension, this is the outcome they wanted.

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