Conservative speakers Dave Rubin, Charlie Kurk and Candace Owens spoke in the Student Union Theater Tuesday night as representatives of Turning Point USA. File Photo / The Daily Campus
The University of Connecticut’s chapter of Turning Point U.S.A. advocated for free speech yesterday by allowing students to write whatever they wanted on a giant beach ball.
“We believe everybody has the right to speak their mind,” seventh-semester actuarial science major and UConn Turning Point U.S.A. chapter President Christopher Robitaille said.
According to Robitaille, the nonprofit has three goals: To promote freedom of speech, limited government and fiscal responsibility. The group has held the beach ball activity for the past three years, to work towards their goal of promoting free speech.
Students wrote obscenities, political statements or whatever was on their mind.
The beach ball sported phrases like “God bless everyone” and “students for socialism” but also items like “stay triggered snowflakes” and “Make America Great Again.” One student wrote “Don’t believe everything you read on a ball.”
“Having a big ball like this lets people be anonymous in what they say,” Robitaille said.
After writing “RIP Mac” on the beach ball, third-semester management and engineering for manufacturing major Ethan Yazdanpanah explained how he understood the event.
“You can write anything,” he said. “That’s obviously what our country was founded on. That’s something we need to still preserve today.”
Last semester, Turning Point USA garnered attention on campus for their controversial “Campus Clash” event, hosting the organization’s president Charlie Kirk and former communications director Candace Owens, which sparked a number of Daily Campus opinion articles and counter protests.
Alex Houdeshell is the managing editor for The Daily Campus. She can be reached via email at alexandra.houdeshell@uconn.edu.