Political discourse becomes more of an issue on campus after defacing of advertisements

Political tensions on Truman State University’s campus have risen alongside U.S. Congressman Byron Donalds’ speech, organized by the new political group, Turning Point USA.

Charlie Kirk and Bill Montgomery founded the national advocate group during 2012. The University’s TPUSA was founded after Kirk was shot and killed Sept. 10, leading many students to connect the national political positions of TPUSA to the TPUSA on their doorstep at Truman. 

Unidentified students on campus who saw the chalk advertising for the speaker poured water on the chalk and erased the messages, causing a stir. 

TPUSA founding member and president Joey Weinbauer and other members turned in complaints to the University’s Office of Citizenship and Conduct after vandalism of their chalk and sign, which was drawn on and taken down. Weinbauer said that he wanted those committing the erasure of his organization’s campus chalking to have a change of heart. 

After the issue was turned into the OCC, Tyana Lange, vice president of student engagement and marketing, sent students an email to ease the tensions around the new political atmosphere on campus. 

“I want to remind our community to live out the best parts of discourse on our campus to ensure actions are aligned with the Board of Governors’ policies and expectations,” Lange said in the email. “We encourage participants in these events to approach conversations with curiosity, respect, and a willingness to listen.”

College Democrats president Ben Croat had a different perspective on the effects of chalking itself. He said that although the campus environment matters, the focus of College Democrats on the University’s campus is not to have people talk about them, but to make tangible changes.

“What does chalking do?” Croat said. “It doesn’t have any practical effect. If I’m going to spend my time and energy doing something, it’s to try to reform our actual political system, which is what we did in 2024, where we got hundreds of signatures on campus for both Amendment 3 and Prop A.”

Croat said he and other College Democrats feared a key part of the national TPUSA coming to campus, a website called the Professor Watchlist. The website is used in a political fashion, calling left-leaning educators terrorists and terrorist supporters while also having sections on racial ideology, LGBTQ, feminism, socialism and many others. The stated goal of the list is to document professors who discriminate against conservatives while also making the campus environment more hostile. 

Weinbauer said that he was unaware of the Professor Watchlist, despite it being a part of the national TPUSA brand and does not plan to bring such a list to the University’s campus. 

Weinbauer was not surprised to face such pushback but wasn’t sure why people disliked TPUSA so heavily. Weinbauer said that even though there are political differences among students, that does not mean that he couldn’t be anyone’s friend, as he always treats students with respect.

Some students would disagree with this sentiment as TPUSA have been called fascists anonymously online. Weinbauer said that he and the organization were unequivocally not fascists and found the ideology distasteful and hated being talked about in that way. 

Nationally right-wing ideology has been associated with fascism since Trump took office for his first presidential candidacy in 2016, and Weinbauer reflected many of the party’s positions. In a discussion on what Weinbauer thought about transgender rights, he said that he and Republicans do not want to take away rights of transgender individuals but did not stand for the idea someone could be transgender.

“The thing with transgenderism is that the entire thing is a total lie,” Weinbauer said. “That you can change into another gender based on your feelings or whatever [is a lie].”

Weinbauer said he would still be friends with a transgender person and he believes that people can put aside their political differences and be friends or if they can’t they can have reasonable, civil discussions.