On Saturday, February 3, Grove City College and the University of Pittsburgh’s NeW chapters met up at the Fudge Farm in Pittsburgh.
It was a night full of laughter and fellowship between conservative women. As soon as we got there, we bonded over our milkshakes and then started discussing all the hot topics, including, gay marriage, abortion, and the anti-law enforcement attitude currently plaguing college campuses. There were ten girls from Grove City and three girls from the up and coming NeW chapter at UPitt. It was so nice to be able to bond over shared morals and goals for our country.
Being a member of the NeW at Grove City, I am used to being surrounded by conservatives on campus. We were shocked to hear of the backlash that conservatives receive at UPitt. This past election year was very rough on them. One of the girls talked about how she lost most of her friends because she was not voting for Hilary. How could a female in her right mind not vote for a woman who prides herself in fighting for women’s issues? She was an outcast, was silenced because of her political views, and lost many of her newly made friends. We talked about the difficulty of finding other solid conservatives in the rough ocean of student protests and liberal professors. Troubled by what I was hearing, I asked the girls, “Do you think this behavior is typical of all colleges, or do you think that it is because of the particular campus you are on?” They responded by saying that other colleges, while they might be liberal leaning are not as rigid and hateful towards conservatives. Rather, since UPitt is a city school, it has a lot of influences and resources that other schools do not have. While it has been difficult for them to express themselves politically, they did not regret going there for their education because when you have to defend what you stand for, you do get stronger and you learn.
On our ride home to Grove City, our chapter discussed the stark contrast of the backlash that other college students in the nation face compared to Grove City building and helping form our conservative conscience. We realized that the freedom of speech that those schools so often preach is truly one-sided. The only people that have the freedom to speak their minds are the liberals, while girls like us are silenced or ridiculed should we choose to speak our minds. There is no discussion or even a civil debate – a dialogue that should be fostered at a university. It gave us more passion and confidence to speak up for our beliefs and stay strong in them, realizing that it is not always going to be easy to do so in our day and generation.
