TO THE EDITOR:
Though it may not be the mainstream thing to do during the best four years of your life, College Republicans play an important role in the campus community. Because of the liberal bias that is inherent in our education system, College Republicans fill the void by providing intellectual diversity on campuses across the state.
That’s why it’s important to be sure that College Republicans get adequate funding from student governments. This week, the UNC College Republicans received a 75 percent funding cut from last year’s budget for seemingly no reason other than “across the board cuts.” Yet anarchist and feminist groups received significantly fewer cuts and substantially more funding.
The anarchist UNControllables received $4,005 and feminist The Siren Magazine received their full funding request. Keep in mind that UNC College Republicans is one of UNC’s largest student organizations, and especially larger than the two mentioned here.
Regardless of your position on the ideological scale, I hope you realize why it’s important for College Republicans to exist. Whether you’re a Democrat, a Republican, unaffiliated or apathetic, we all have friends on either side of the aisle, and we respect their opinion as it brings balance to our political dialogue which as of late is regrettably rather polarizing.
I encourage every campus community to support intellectual diversity on their campuses. That includes open dialogues amongst different ideological groups as well as fair funding practices in student government. If you’re fed up with the gridlock plaguing our government, let’s change that. It starts now by opening our minds to other views rather than shutting them down by pulling funding.
Nate Pencook
Chairman
NC Federation of College Republicans
