This post was written by Brian Diaz, President of the Liberty University Young Democrats chapter.

Friends and Supporters:

The day of May 15th counted the mark of the end of Liberty University College Democrats, due to the university’s administration.

Before coming to Liberty, I knew that the school was founded by the religious right leader, Jerry Falwell Sr., and that my beliefs and opinions on politics would get attacked and disrespected in a daily basis.  I took this on as a challenge, and an opportunity to share conversations, and to further advance, not only my knowledge on issues, but to help others understand a different point of view.

In September of 2008, I began volunteering for Barack Obama, after coming from Florida, where I interned for Florida for Change, and the Florida Democratic Party. After about a week, I began meeting a couple of people from Liberty University, and in particular, students and staff that happened to be Democrats. I gathered their contact information, met shortly after, and turned in an application to be an official club, recognized by Liberty University.

A month after, in October of 2008, we have received word that Liberty University’s Administration has officially accepted our application and that we were fully and officially recognized as a school-affiliated organization. We were shocked. How at Liberty University also known as the nesting ground for political conservatives, did we establish a Young Democrats chapter?

Soon after, we began to work…
We continued to campaign for Barack and visited his inauguration event, we campaigned for Tom Perrielo, we began working on a coalition of local university democrats to work within the communities in issues such as poverty, we went to the Virginia Young Democrats convention and were awarded the “Up and Coming Club of the Year” award, We started a statewide Faith Caucus under the Virginia Young Democrats, we started campaigning for several gubernatorial candidates in Virginia, we started campaigning for Shannon Valentine,  we even partnered with the College Republicans group on a town hall on the genocide in Darfur.

We’ve gotten compliments for reaching across the aisle, compliments for showing the love of Christ in the political atmosphere; we’ve even had compliments from administration themselves for starting the Faith Caucus, and doing “The same work that Jerry Falwell Sr. did with the Republican party.”

May 15, 2009 came… I checked my email and was shocked at what I read. The Liberty University College Democrats club was not going to be recognized by the university. We would not be able to meet on campus; we would not be able to advertise on campus, we weren’t able to have events on campus.

Although, it has saddened all of the members on our Executive Board, I want you all to know that your support has lifted our spirits and encouraged us to continue fighting for what is right.

It makes us saddened that there are rumors of our ‘Promise to only support Pro Life candidates.’ This has been just that only a rumor, and not true. We have put in a special clause in our constitution stating our groups’ pro-life stance, although it further explains our right to endorse or support any candidate in any political race.

But in all of this sadness, it seems as if we have been making progress! In our first email from Mark Hine, Liberty University VP of Student Affairs, he informed us that we would not be able to meet on campus, and now it has changed otherwise. At first, they did not want to work for a compromise and now they want to do just that.

Although we have been making progress with the Liberty University administration in our request to reinstate us as a club, their offers are not enough. We wish to be fully reinstated as if we were in the first place. We wish to advertise, hold events, hold meetings, and have free speech, without the administration having a hold on our organization, or its actions.

We want freedom.

We would like to thank everyone for their support, Virginia Young Democrats, Democratic Party of Virginia, Young Democrats of America, College Democrats of America, Democratic National Committee, Faithful Democrats, Congressman Tom Perrielo, Terry McAuliffe, Brian Moran, Creigh Deeds, Mike Signer, Jody Wagner, and friends along the way such as Katie Ford, Jason Perkey, John Lawrence, and many other people that we have met in this journey.

Thank you for all of the support, and do all that you are doing to continue to pressure the Liberty Administration to reinstate us as an official club on campus!

Sincerely,

Brian Diaz
President
Liberty University Young Democrats