CMU Troubles

Tensions rose at Colorado Mesa University (CMU) when Jared Taylor, a well-known white supremacist, was invited by the Western Culture Club to speak on March 27th. The event sparked protests, with a group of students and community members gathering on the corner of 12th Street and North Avenue just two hours before the scheduled speech. The protesters marched through the CMU campus, voicing their opposition to Taylor’s views. The Western Culture Club, which was founded only a month earlier by 21-year-old student Max Applebaugh, has only about five members. Applebaugh had recently parted ways with another campus club due to personal disagreements. Georgann Jouflas, the faculty sponsor of the Western Culture Club, shared her perspective with the Colorado News Line, saying, “Freedom of speech is easy to support when you agree with what is being said. It becomes much more difficult when you do not.” In response to the controversy, fifteen CMU students, strongly opposed to Taylor’s speech, joined the Western Culture Club in an attempt to hold an election to elect new members, but this effort was ultimately shut down. Joseph Zambrano, a senior at Palisade High School who takes classes at CMU and has multiple family members at the university, expressed his concerns, saying: “I think this really affects CMU’s respect that it has built over the years.” He went on to say, “This situation around CMU has been a little shaky, and tensions have been a little high.” The event and subsequent protests highlight the challenges that universities face when navigating controversial speakers and the limits of free speech.