On Nov. 19 chants could be heard across campus. Over 100 people had gathered outside the Donald P Corbett Business Hall to protest the presence of Maine House Rep. Laurel Libby on campus.
There was confusion on campus due to a last second pull out of one of the event sponsors. The University of Maine chapter of Turning Point USA (TPUSA UMaine) initially advertised the event on their Instagram page as a collaboration between them and the Leadership Institute, a national organization that has a friendly partnership relationship with the national branch of TPUSA. Shortly before the event the advertising materials were removed from TPUSA UMaine’s Instagram page.
Aarya Olsen, a fourth-year student who attended the event as a protester, was confused on why the event was being hosted by an outside organizer when TPUSA UMaine is now a recognized student organization.
“It’d make more sense if TPUSA UMaine was asked not to host the event,” Olsen said. “I wish we knew all of the reasons why they weren’t hosting.”
This has led to public questioning about TPUSA UMaine’s role in the event. The Maine Campus spoke to Molly Curtis, TPUSA UMaine’s President, to clarify their role in hosting the event.
Curtis explained that they had been contacted by the Leadership Institute organizers of the event on Nov. 14, five days before the event, to ask them to collaborate with them. TPUSA UMaine agreed to collaborate with them and released an Instagram post that listed them as co-sponsor.
The Leadership Institute was the primary organizer of the event, and since this was an event organized by an outside organization, it would have been organized with the University of Maine’s Events and Hospitality Services. If TPUSA UMaine had organized it primarily, it still would have been primarily coordinated through Events and Hospitality due to it being a political event.
Following this initial advertisement, TPUSA UMaine changed their mind about whether they could put their name on the event.
“They already had it planned, and so we just kind of let them take the reins, because it wasn’t worth us promoting when we had little to no hand in it at all,” said Curtis.
On Nov. 18, TPUSA UMaine removed the posts about the event from their account and made an Instagram story post explaining that they would no longer be hosting the event.
Curtis said that TPUSA UMaine felt that the event was not really their event, but a Leadership Institute event, and therefore felt uncomfortable continuing to put their name on the event. Though Curtis also realized that “once it got out that it was under us, it was still under us in everybody’s mind.”
According to Curtis, the only remaining involvement by TPUSA UMaine was that she volunteered at the event. According to Curtis, she was the only member of the UMaine chapter who was actually volunteering at the event.
“I think I was the only real volunteer. The other ones were just the audience.”
Many students who attended the event saw students filming on their cell phones. According to Curtis, while some volunteers were recording, the majority of students filming was done unofficially. While TPUSA UMaine did not post any videos or photos from the event, the Leadership Institute posted a video of the protest on Nov. 24. Curtis did not clarify why hosting the event means promotional content and photos of the event were deleted.
The TPUSA UMaine chapter received preliminary recognition from the General Student Senate on Sept. 23 during their meeting.
