Since the assassination of Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk, free speech has come under particular challenge for those who openly criticize him. In a New York Times guest opinion piece, following late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel being temporarily pulled from air, “We Can No Longer Tell Ourselves This Isn’t Really Happening,” Micheal Hirschorn wrote that “the silencing of Mr. Kimmel, following an explicit threat by Brendan Carr, the head of ABC’s regulator, the Federal Communications Commission, is the mask of ‘free speech’ coming off for good.”
Something that feels similarly Orwellian has been happening to students’ First Amendment rights on the New College of Florida campus; however, the school’s administration has continued to insist on its unwavering defense of free speech. In an email to the student body on Sept. 16, the administration stated that a statue of Kirk would be donated and placed at New College. The email stated that “the statue, privately funded by community leaders, will stand on campus as a commitment by New College to defend and fight for free speech and civil discourse in American life.”
In the email, New College President Richard Corcoran stated that “at New College, we will not step back from this responsibility — we will champion it and seek to be known as the number one college in the nation when it comes to supporting civil debate and freedom of speech.”
This opinion article compares two instances around free speech issues that I experienced recently as a New College student. I found that freedom of speech was deemed worthy of protection in one case but not the other.
Voter Registration at New College
On Aug. 22, the New College office of Student Activities and Community Engagement (SAUCE) hosted its annual Novopalooza, which is New College’s equivalent of a club rush. The Harry Sudakoff Center was bursting with energy, flags, stickers and festival-themed decor as club leaders sought to attract fellow students to join their organizations. Any school club or outside organization that has been approved by SAUCE can host a table at Novopalooza.
I am the president of New College’s chapter of the League of Women Voters (LWV), a nonpartisan grassroots organization made up of national and local chapters committed to voter advocacy and political engagement. Since its founding in 1920, the LWV has been dedicated to educating all citizens, not just women, on voting and suffrage. The organization encourages civic activism and works to bridge the gap between citizens and their government. The group’s idea is that through increased knowledge of public policy and how interested people can impact their community, citizens are better equipped to have a say in policies that affect them.
Prior to Novopalooza, SAUCE Coordinator Fernando Capula emailed me about topics the LWV table at Novopalooza was not permitted to discuss.
“Voting-related discussions” is what the club and the national organization bases itself upon. I wondered how clubs could recruit students without discussing their main missions or purposes, and I reached out for clarification.
In his earlier email, Capula wrote, “Please hold off on voter registration activities or voting-related discussions when tabling.” Following my email requesting clarification, he then wrote that the club “is absolutely welcome to have discussions related to voting while tabling.” After these two emails, my LWV representative and I refrained from displaying any voter registration information at our table. As a current student at New College, I was also afraid to question Capula much further.
After the event, I met with Capula to discuss the school’s intentions behind these emails. He refused to speak on the record, but my impression from our conversation was that he was told by his director to issue information barring my club from registering students to vote and discussing voting without fully grasping the gravity of what he was insinuating. Capula has only worked at SAUCE for one year and is still learning how to follow instructions from his superiors while advocating for students. I believe that he accepted accountability for the misinformation and was open to my feedback about how to better navigate student interests.
Something that especially stood out in Capula’s emails was his claim that registering students is against Florida state law. Florida Senate Bill 7050, section 97.0575, voted on in May 2023, states that “third-party voter registration organizations provide to the [Division of Elections] certain affirmations” and makes the registration process stricter. Organizations must re-register every election cycle and provide receipts to anyone they register to vote. The act shortens the window during which registration applications have to be turned in and increases penalties for failure to do so. However, nowhere does it state that registering students to vote on a public college campus is prohibited.
According to a phone interview between Old School Catalyst and Lauren James from the Florida Department of Elections with Third Parties, voter registration “is between the petitioner and the university. We have no statute or rule on that. We just leave it to the university and the third party.” In other words, if New College had said that they themselves prohibited the LWV from registering students to vote, that would have been legal. However, blaming a non-existent “state law” is inaccurate.
A June 2024 article from Inside Higher Ed, states that LWV volunteers have been instructed not to register citizens using paper. “Club members show interested individuals how to register online or hand out blank physical voter registration applications, along with envelopes and information about how to either mail or hand-deliver the forms.”
The LWV is still permitted to help register students to vote, they just had to change their tactics. “We can have a table with information on how you register to vote and we have QR codes that take people straight to the website on their own device,” President of LWV’s Manatee County Chapter Ruth Harenchar stated during a phone interview.
The new shift in Florida voter registration laws allows for the LWV to provide encouragement for patrons who are registering themselves; the LWV only provides the tools. However, because of the potential consequences of disregarding Capula’s email, I was nervous about providing registration documents during Novoplaooza.
“In the past, we have registered students to vote on college campuses,” Co-Chair of the Young Adults Committee of the Florida LWV Ashley Cacicedo stated over email correspondence with Old School Catalyst. “Now the landscape looks very different. Due to SB 7050, many leagues have been giving out QR codes to the voter registration form.”
On Sept. 17, National Voter Registration Day, the LWV helped register university students to vote across Florida campuses including Santa Fe College, University of Central Florida and University of South Florida. State law had not barred other college campuses from registering students to vote.
Harenchar said that the LWV has registered New College students to vote for decades and she affirmed that it is completely legal for the League to register students as long as the League does not use paper forms or interfere with the registration process. “Our Manatee Supervisor of Elections knows that we go out and table. We are still quite active in registering people to vote.”
Hannah King, from the Manatee County Department of Elections, stated that “the LWV is fine as long as you’re following all the laws in place for third party organizations. When having these applications and signing them, there are certain laws you are supposed to follow. As long as you are a third party, it is not against the law.” King affirmed James’ earlier statement about the lack of a Florida statute that would make registering students to vote on campus illegal.
In comparison, it is worth noting that while my club’s right to free speech was hindered, another club on campus was supported by New College’s administration, citing the school’s commitment to the First Amendment.
Turning Point USA
A New College Turning Point chapter was established in 2023 by third-year student Jackson Dawson. The club has not had a strong presence on campus and has hosted a couple of events that have not caused much controversy. Turning Point, like all New College-approved clubs, tabled at Novopalooza and passed out decorative buttons and flags.
Turning Point USA’s political leanings are not ambiguous, as the Chief Operating Officer of the national organization, Tyler Bowyer, is currently serving on the Republican National Committee. Kirk’s recent murder has placed the club under a new spotlight.
A photo of Turning Point’s table and poster at Novopalooza was uploaded to one of the official New College Instagram accounts. In the photo, the vice president of Turning Point New College is holding up a poster that reads, “9 mm beats 911 every time.” I found the message alarming, especially on a college campus where guns are absolutely prohibited. However, the message was not directed at anyone nor did it create an imminent threat of violence.
That the poster was permitted at Novopalooza and subsequently posted on an Instagram account representing New College unnerved me, especially in light of the administration’s detailed email restricting voting-related conversations. While I had to push hard for my club’s message, Turning Point’s message was allowed and even defended. I sent an email to New College President Richard Corcoran and Vice President of Student Services Almeda Jacks to voice these concerns.
I wanted to make the administration aware of the message it was supporting by posting it on New College’s social media page. During the meeting, which lasted 10 minutes at most, Jacks was very understanding. She said she appreciated my voicing the concern and that she would talk to the social media manager immediately. She agreed with the sentiment that students should call campus police when in crisis.
I suggested that she send a mass email to all New College clubs, without calling out Turning Point, stating that any advocacy of guns is a direct contrast to the principles of student safety that New College stands for. Jacks thanked me for bringing the poster to her attention and said she would send a follow up.
The New College chapter of LWV was cautioned before I even set up a table, but Turning Point’s speech was permitted with no issues. I felt intimidated, but I learned that the very essence of democracy is the freedom to ask, to question and to do one’s own research. Be polite, be respectful, but do not be afraid. When society as a collective stops asking, institutional fascism thrives. When we allow ourselves to be bullied by authorities in power, that is when free speech truly dies.
Similar to the heart of this opinion piece, host of the Late Show with Stephen Colbert warned against what happens when we blindly give into a fascist authority. During Colbert’s nightly monologue, he said, “With an autocrat, you cannot give an inch. If ABC thinks that this is going to satisfy the regime, they are woefully naive. And clearly they’ve never read the children’s book ‘If You Give a Mouse a Kimmel.’”
