Young America’s Foundation (YAF) is leveling criticism against Elizabethtown College after they and the Elizabethtown College Republicans were unable to host a speaker event on campus.
YAF is a national conservative organization that supports and advocates for the presence of conservative voices on college campuses by organizing “Young Americans for Freedom” chapters and hosting conservative speakers at campuses.
YAF claims a presence at more than 2,000 campuses. In recent years, Etown had an unofficial YAF presence, but it was not a recognized club by the college.
According to YAF’s online publication, The New Guard, the organization, in partnership with the College Republicans, wished to bring Yeonmi Park to Etown’s campus. Park is best known for her stories concerning her life and escape from North Korea when she was young.
Her stories of witnessing and living under the restrictions and iron fist rule of the country’s authoritarian regime have made Park one of the most famous and high-profile individuals to escape North Korea. She has described how her family went from relatively well off life to struggling to survive after her father was imprisoned for engaging in trade with individuals across the border in China after the government cut rations. When Park was 13, she and her mother escaped North Korea through China and Mongolia where they then secured passage and asylum in South Korea.
Some of Park’s past claims about her life in North Korea have been disputed by other defectors and journalists who have looked into her stories due to inconsistencies. Park contends that her young age and English not being her first language are the reasons for any inconsistencies. More recently she has lent her voice to conservative causes against the rise of progressive and leftwing politics and has spoken at events for YAF and Turning Point USA (TPUSA).
The College Republicans sent the request to host Park on June 6 during the summer and received a response on Sept. 30. The prospective date for Park’s event would have been Oct. 22. The club says that the timing of the reply, which was not an approval, would not have allowed them to sufficiently advertise the event. There was a similarly unsuccessful attempt to bring Park to campus last semester. YAF accuses Etown of blocking Park’s speaking event.
“Unfortunately, Etown has not been willing to work with YAF and our club in a timely or good faith manner,” College Republicans President Taylor Libby said. “We have been trying to get the contract approved for Yeonmi Park to speak at Etown College since the end of last school year, but it has been a struggle trying to get them to work with us.”
According to Etown’s club handbook and based on the timing of the event request outside of its Tier Management System used during the academic year, the College Republicans event would have been processed in the order it was received along with any other events requested by other clubs. The event contract then requires approval from the club advisor and the Assistant Director for Student Activities.
“YAF requested to sponsor a speaker on campus through the College Republicans,” Assistant Director for Student Activities Brooke Hollinger said. “We were unable to come to an agreement on terms of the contract.”
Hollinger declined to elaborate on the specifics of the disagreement between Etown and YAF and the College Republicans. The New Guard says Etown required the event be restricted to the public and not use YAF branding.
The New Guard piece is not the first time a conservative publication has leveled claims of bias against Etown. Last year, Campus Reform, a conservative news site that claims to expose “leftist bias and abuse on the nation’s college campuses,” criticized Etown for not allowing a TPUSA chapter to be started on campus based on the rules for clubs. All clubs at Etown, including the College Republicans and The Etownian, must have a faculty advisor. The prospective Etown TPUSA club was unable to find an advisor.
