By Connor Parks
With the recent approval of Turning Point USA and Centre Leftists as campus organisations, students now have two more diverse options to choose from in getting involved civically and politically on campus. Given the discourse around these two groups leading up to and following their approvals, we at the Cento sought to provide a space for the leaders of both clubs to voice their visions and explain their missions. I sat down with Vincent Manninen (‘28), President of Centre Leftists, and Mitchell Chaffin (‘28), President of Centre’s Turning Point USA chapter, to clarify some concerns and bring some awareness to the future of both of these politically charged groups at Centre. Both expressed interest in cooperation and mutually friendly dialogue, and addressed many concerns held by students and faculty about their campus presence.
What are the main things your organisation hopes to bring to everyday campus life?
Vincent: I’d say we’re really concerned about student education, widely about leftist politics and social concerns, and then also providing a sphere for leftist students- maybe not just leftist students, but students generally interested in a third political space- with the resources in the community they need to learn more, debate each other, and just generally form community. I’d also really like to provide students with access to volunteering, especially in Danville, since we have a lot of community concerns that are really related to leftism and I think that that’s something really important to address with our members.
Mitchell: First and foremost, we want to be a safe space for like-minded students to come together to be able to discuss a vast majority of conservative ideas, and voice their thoughts and opinions on those without fear of being marginalised or attacked for their beliefs. That’s our first goal. Our second goal is just to educate and inspire some people who may be on the quieter side, who want to learn more and get more into this movement. We want them to look at us and say “Oh, they’re doing it, I can do that too- I can have a voice on this campus as well.”
How did you feel about your process going through SGA to get approved?
Vincent: I am much more pleased with the approval than I thought I was going to be, since I thought SGA was going to be a lot more hesitant to approve us and pose a little more resistance. Getting up there and answering questions that night, the vibes I got from SGA collectively when asking questions were not the same as the ones I got coming back in and seeing that we’d gotten approved. I guess that’s maybe just part of the process, that they have to be kind of stone-faced interviewers who can’t be “too nice”, you know?
Mitchell: It was a bit of a different process than we first thought, since there were two sessions. I can understand why there were- I can admit that I came a bit unprepared for the first session, and I can understand why SGA had some questions and issues relating to Turning Point in that session. I’d like to thank the SGA staff, Caroline, and everyone who tried to make that go as smoothly as possible in the first one, and then did so much hard work in the following weeks to get all these issues wrapped up and clarified so that me, my team, and Dr. Perry (the chapter’s advisor) could go into the weeds, see what they had an issue with, and clarify what we meant. The second one went great: it was very fast, very professional, and I thought I did a much better job expressing what Turning Point means.
What can the campus community expect to see from your organisation before the end of the semester? Events? Guest speakers?
Vincent: Interesting you ask that, because we’re actually planning that right now in our meeting. We’re really looking to get the community part of it very solidified- getting the club going, getting people ready to go, getting people educated, and getting the interest there before we go out and do it, so that I know what we get done will be done with passion, correctly, and well. Right now, we’re looking for things that will happen this semester. Seeing as we’re already (over) halfway through, we can’t really do a whole lot, but we’re planning book discussions including leftist theory which can vary from papers to books, essays, and short pamphlets. We’ll be using open-access PDFs so we don’t really have to worry about how to fund that, because everyone can access and open those resources.
Mitchell: Right now we’re starting to talk about our first meeting, which will probably just be a celebratory get-together: we’ll probably get a grill and cook up some burgers and dogs. Other than that, we’re just trying to start monthly meetings for the club, and trying to reach out to the Danville community and Centre alumni network to try and get some speakers who have conservative or different thoughts or ideas than the campus community as a whole. Ideally we’ll be able to invite them to campus and host events open to all students where everyone can hear the speaker’s perspectives on said ideas. We might also be able to do some charity work in Danville to give back to the greater community.
What inspired you to try and form a campus organisation like this?
Vincent: Oh, gosh. You know, last spring I was really looking for a third political space on campus. Not that the two political clubs are bad, but I myself have been a leftist for a really long time, and not having that sort of community that I wanted to see kind of drove me to make it. Over the summer, I started really solidifying the foundational aspects of the club, like the GroupMe, inviting people, and really putting it out there. To me, I just want other people who might be like myself, who might think that we need more organisation as leftists because we are really spread out among the political diaspora of regular people who are usually moderate, Republican, or Democrat. I feel that by bringing leftists together we’ll form a really good community.
Mitchell: The common misconception is that the chapter was a reactionary group to Charlie Kirk’s assassination. That is incorrect: the Turning Point regional rep for the Bluegrass area actually had an interest table at Expo, before Charlie was murdered. I was one of the students that showed interest and a few of us kept in touch with our regional rep, working to get a chapter on campus when, sadly, Mr. Kirk was assassinated. We conservatives had just witnessed a husband and father murdered for promoting the same Christian and conservative values that a lot of us also have. After this, more people talked to me about starting a Turning Point chapter, or something similar. Charlie Kirk’s assassination expedited the founding of the Chapter, but it was not the main reason it was formed.
What’s one thing you would tell a skeptical potential member about joining your organisation?
Vincent: I would say don’t be worried! We don’t have any particular requirements about experience in leftism at all. You can show up and not know anything about anything at all, you can not know Marx from Mao, and I’ll still welcome you to the club. I still want to provide people the opportunity to learn more and form a community. Even if they’re not hardcore Marxist-Leninist, all the way like that, I think people still deserve the chance to explore their political future.
Mitchell: I’d say that if you’re on the fence, just come out to a meeting and say “hey, I’m new to this, what exactly do you guys do?” Max is no longer on the board because he wanted to step down, but come talk to me or any of the people on my board- Alexander, GiGi, et cetera. Talk with us, or show up to a meeting, and we’ll gladly tell you what we do. We’re open to different thoughts and ideas, which is exactly what this group is for, so come share your thoughts and why you may be on the fence. Hopefully we’ll clarify what we are, and we’re more than welcome to have you!
How concerned are you about political polarisation on campus around these two organisations? Are you interested in potential dialogue to mitigate this?
Vincent: Yeah, I’m definitely interested in that. I don’t want TPUSA at Centre to get the wrong impression that I hold some sort of animosity towards them; I think within a certain scope, so long as things aren’t actively bringing harm to others, that students should be allowed to have free speech, to believe what they want, and even if they disagree with me, I believe in their right to do so. Of course, this is so long as there aren’t bad actors or harmful ways of thinking about certain groups of people or politics more generally, because I don’t endorse that, but I certainly endorse their ability to have the beliefs that they want to have. This isn’t an affront in any way whatsoever. We were already kind of organised before a lot of the recent events happened with TPUSA, and this isn’t to diminish them at all or combat them in any way. I would most certainly be interested in a dialogue with them as to what they believe about that.
Mitchell: I don’t know much about the Centre Leftists, or what values they’re trying to go for, since they’re obviously a different group than Centre Democrats, so I want to learn more. I think it’s good to hear other people’s perspectives, and Vincent’s a good guy with lots of interesting ideas. I think it would be interesting to have some dialogue in the future, and I don’t think that there’s going to be any malicious intent or dividing behaviour from either side- I can assure you not from our Turning Point chapter, and I’m sure that that won’t happen from Centre Leftists either.