Christian university blocks Turning Point USA chapter in California

Student at A Christian University In California, it said its Turning Point USA chapter was prevented from being recognized as an official chapter, which the school explained was its official policy for “political advocacy initiatives.”

Sadie Burnett is in her third year at Vanguard University, a small private school in Costa Mesa, California. She is the president of the school’s Turning Point USA chapter, which the school does not currently recognize.

“Since 2023, we have had a very vibrant and active presence on campus,” Burnett told Fox News Digital. “We hosted several events, and we were able to get a rush in the club. We had students who were very excited to be there. The thing that made us stand out as a Christian university, was the fact that the turning point was practiced, and not only practiced, but celebrated.”

However, the school made the official decision to stop accepting political clubs, and instead convert any Political activity Or events through a process involving management.

Sadie Burnett, president of the Turning Point USA chapter at Vanguard University (right), holds a Charlie Kirk banner on an unknown date. (Obtained by Fox News Digital)

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“We received an email over the summer that the school was taking a new direction with student organizations,” Burnett said. “They stay completely out of politics, and they give the idea that Christians don’t necessarily belong in politics, which is interesting because they have a political science department, which I’m a part of.”

Burnett said she met with the school administration, trying to work out an arrangement that would allow Turning Point to operate. She was repeatedly shut down.

The group is able to gather on campus, but only off it, and not in any official capacity as a conservative group.

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““We’re not ‘conservatives,’ we’re just students hanging out,” Burnett explained, adding that some class members feel unsafe going out in public given the “anti-conservative” sentiment on campus and online.

Registered student organizations can host events on campus, along with a host of other privileges not afforded to unaffiliated groups.

A crowd gathers at a vigil hosted by Turning Point USA at Vanguard University in September 2025 after the assassination of Charlie Kirk. (Micah Kunkel, Carson Van Vuuren)

“The difference between being an unaffiliated chapter versus being a registered student organization is that registered chapters, or organizations, can reserve meeting rooms in advance to make sure they have space to speak, and they have space to host events,” Burnett said. “They are allowed to receive college funding. They can rush into the club and interact with students, interact with incoming freshmen [and] Prospective students.”

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Burnett said the class can’t host tabletop events, where other students can approach them and ask them questions, which she knows is “one of the most important and core turning points” as a whole. Colleges, after all, were known as places where students were encouraged to discuss ideas freely, she said.

“If I wanted to go to a college or university that was anti-conservative, but they at least let me speak, I would definitely choose to go there,” she said. “So I feel like I pulled the rug out from under my decision to attend this school.”

Most importantly, Burnett said, Christians should not be marginalized from political debate.

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“Christians have a place in politics, and not just a place. We have a deep voice, the deepest voice in politics. “We have every right to assert ourselves, to make claims, and it is very disappointing to see a Christian university promoting the idea that Christians should not speak and that politics is taboo,” she said.

Turning Point USA hosted a vigil at Vanguard University in September 2025 after the assassination of Charlie Kirk. (Micah Kunkel, Carson Van Vuuren)

In 2023, when the Turning Point chapter was in the process of applying to become a registered student group, the school was already moving away from political clubs, said Amanda Lebrecht, Vanguard University’s vice president for student development.

“We were in the process of dissolving our inter-club council and moving towards what we have now fully established, which is our goal.” Student clubs and organization model,” she told Fox News Digital.

““This fall, it was determined that university policy does not allow campus clubs associated with political advocacy initiatives,” she said, adding that the decision is part of an effort to promote “Our educational mission in the context of our small Christian community.”

Instead of political clubs, students at Vanguard are encouraged to work with university administration on broader initiatives such as last year’s “Year of Civility,” which Lebrecht described as “co-curricular programming.” She said the school hosted almost daily events from the beginning of the 2024-2025 school year until the November elections, with the goal of meeting the school’s mission of “Leadership.”[ing] A life of Christ-centered leadership and service.”

This year’s theme is “Courageous Conversations,” which, with the help of students, brought pro-life activist Laila Rose of Live Action to campus.

People hold signs reading “This is our turning point” during a memorial service for slain conservative commentator Charlie Kirk at State Farm Stadium, in Glendale, Arizona, September 21, 2025. (Brian Snyder/Reuters)

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“So, we would meet with these students frequently to help them achieve their goals, but in a way that served our community, and we provided them with an opportunity that still exists to have an academic social club throughout history. [and] “Department of Political Science,” Lebrecht said.

As for Burnett’s take on conservative student safety on campus, Lebrecht said students have direct access to the school’s chief of campus safety, and that the school, uniquely, shares its campus with the Costa Mesa Police Department, along with the city’s fire department.

“We will continue to engage these students, and we will continue to try to find a way to help them achieve their goals and make it work within the Vanguard community,” Lebrecht said.

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Lebrecht said the university’s president prefers not to have different political clubs on campus, with left-wing or right-wing political leanings, but instead “seeks to channel their voice… in a different way, not silence them.”

Vanguard allows what it calls “cultural and heritage clubs,” including the Black Student Union, which Lebrecht said “exists to foster belonging and connection among students,” which is open to all students and has been active on campus for more than 10 years.