Over the last two academic years (2017-2018, 2018-2019), Loyola Marymount University’s Student Reserve Board (SRB) allocated more than $100,000 to student clubs and organizations partnering with the school, yet only granted $451 to the school’s Young Americans for Freedom chapter this fall to host Michael Knowles and Andrew Klavan through Young America’s Foundation’s nationwide campus lecture program. Furthermore, it appears the Student Reserve Board violated its own rules in denying LMU YAF the full $2,500 they requested for their lecture by failing to include justification for allocating less than 1/5th of the amount requested.
In October 2017, The Latinx Student Union received $2,630, followed by another $2,909.01 in funding (the full amount requested) in September 2018. Students for Labor and Economic Justice (SLEJ), a non-student group advocating for labor unions listed as a “partner” of LMU received $3,945.50 in March 2018. That same month, the school’s anti-Trump Black Student Union received $5,000.00, the maximum amount students can request in a single proposal. A member of the Black Student Union has recently issued calls for the LMU YAF Chapter to be disbanded.
In all, LMU allocated more than $125,000 dollars to student organizations during the 2017-2018 academic year and has already awarded more than $10,000 this school year, yet LMU Young Americans for Freedom were granted less than $500 to bring conservative ideas to campus.
Despite what appears to be a biased funding process that awards thousands of dollars more per year to left-leaning student organizations while stiffing conservatives, LMU Young Americans for Freedom is boldly advancing freedom’s principles on their campus. Their work to bring in Andrew Klavan and Michael Knowles will bring some evidently-needed ideological diversity to Loyola Marymount University, and LMU YAF ought to be applauded for their commitment to being the visible presence of the Conservative Movement at LMU.
