Details Emerge About How a White Supremacist Was Invited to Speak at Colorado Mesa

The news that the student-run Western Culture Club invited Jared Taylor, an alleged white supremacist, to speak on campus spread like wildfire earlier this month.

CMU president John Marshall sent an email to students on March 7 regarding the speaker. Marshall’s email skirted naming Taylor and the Western Culture Club as to, according to emails later obtained by The Daily Sentinel in an open records request, not give them free PR.

Now, organizers of the speech are emerging as community uproar continues.

“I think the idea of using free speech to allow him to speak here is kind of a cop out. It’s an easy way to dismiss people’s very real concerns,” said senior student Olivia Donahue. “The university’s guidelines do explicitly say that hate speech is protected speech. But they also say that speech that incites harassment or violence is not permitted on campus. And I would argue that white supremacist views are inherently violent.”

Taylor will speak at 6 p.m. on March 27 in room 213 of the University Center.

Max Applebaugh is listed as the Western Culture Club’s president. Applebaugh is the secretary for the Colorado Mesa chapter of Turning Point USA, a conservative organization active on college campuses across the U.S.

The CMU chapter of TPUSA posted on its Instagram denouncing Taylor’s views. In a comment, the chapter confirmed that Applebaugh is still the secretary and wrote that it did not support the event but did support Applebaugh’s free speech in pursuing the event.

On the day of Marshall’s email, the Western Culture Club was listed as having five members on its page on Presence, a portal website that offers information on student-run clubs on campus. On Monday, membership was up to 25 — more than TPUSA’s 20 members.

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The man who offered to cover Taylor’s speaking fee is Jason Lee Van Dyke, a Texas-based attorney who has represented members of the right-wing extremist group Patriot Front, represented the Proud Boys — a right-wing extremist group — and the neo-Nazi group the Aryan Freedom Network. Though Taylor waived his speaking fee fee, Van Dyke donated $1,000 to help run the event.

Van Dyke, who will speak at the event, said that the Western Culture Club approached him for financial support.

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An open records request shows that CMU leadership, particularly Marshall and the Board of Trustees, have been inundated with emails regarding Taylor’s presence. (See Wednesday’s Sentinel for a full story breaking down the open records request.)

The common theme through those emails and student interviews is that worries are persisting about the safety of students in vulnerable communities.

A change.org petition urging the Board of Trustees to condemn Taylor’s presence had 1,030 verified signatures as of press time.

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