Students disrupt conservative, debate-style Reawaken USA booth on Dexter Lawn

“Go to class, go home, go get coffee with your friends,” Ben Tucker shouted into the crowd surrounding the Reawaken USA booth on Dexter lawn, encouraging students to move on with their day and pursue better things than talking with the conservative speakers.

The event, advertised as the Reawaken America Tour, garnered a large crowd today surrounding the booth of speakers —  James Owen, the president of Rewaken USA, and Miguel Muñiz, UC Berkeley student and chairman of California College Republicans. 

Some students cheered on the speakers, while others stood in a tense state watching people come up to the booth to talk with Owen and Muñiz. Some students, like Tucker, an electrical engineering fifth year, tried to disrupt the event and the crowd.

The event, which was promoted by the Cal Poly College Republicans club, featured a booth where students were encouraged to debate with the men in a “prove me wrong style,” according to the event flyer. 

Signs were posted on a board in front of the booth, rotating through the 11 p.m. to 3 p.m. time slot for the booth. The posters said conservative messages like, “Christianity is better than transgenderism,” “deport all illegals,” “abortion is anti-women” and “trans people are mentally ill.” 

Muñiz says Reawaken USA came to Cal Poly as a part of a larger mission to deploy faith based leaders into college campuses around the country. At some points during the four-hour event, up to 200 students were standing around the booth.

“We are partnered with Reawaken just trying to get on campus to spread free speech and right wing values,” Muñiz said. “[We] give students an opportunity to make their voices heard and their opinions challenged.

Students have mixed opinions on the booth

Approximately 20 minutes after the event began, a student ran towards the booth, flipping the tent and knocking over a speaker. Later, another student walked past the booth knocking down the same speaker as he went prompting confrontation from Muñiz and Owen. 

Libby Bowie, a political science junior attended the event and ripped the “trans people are mentally ill” sign that was posted at the booth. 

“Fuck Cal Poly. I fucking hate this school,” Bowie said. “Writing that trans people are mentally ill and putting it on a board and having that protected by the school administration is fucking insane.”

Cal Poly Dean of Students Joy Pedersen also stopped by the event to request their volume be lowered as it could be heard from neighboring classrooms. A community member was walking around the booth passing out flyers with a QR code that directed to a bias incident report. The form allows community members who are the target of a bias incident or observe a bias incident to report it to the university. 

Bowie thinks this type of event will only bring negativity to the campus community, which creates an unsafe environment for everyone.  

“What if your parents are illegal immigrants and you see that sign? What if you’re trans and see that sign? What if you’re a woman and you see that sign?” Bowie said. 

She reflected on the university previously having Charlie Kirk and Turning Point USA on campus, stating this is only encouraging hate speech and targeting certain demographics. 

“That’s hate speech, what I’m reading and what I’m hearing, and that does not have any place on our campus and it shouldn’t,” Bowie said. 

READ MORE: Cal Poly TPUSA hosted Charlie Kirk two years ago, gathering large crowd of supporters and protestors

Jackson Lucas, a business sophomore, initially said the event was positive, engaging and created a space for people to share their opinions and feelings in his first two minutes in attendance. His opinion quickly changed upon listening more closely to the speakers. 

“When people debate things, that’s how you make progress,” Lucas said. “When people disagree, that’s how you make progress. If no one were to ever disagree, you can’t really change anyone’s mind or progress in any way.”

However, in an email to Mustang News before publication, Lucas wanted to clarify that the event did not reflect that kind of exchange. His said he felt as though, “the speakers had no intent to hold a respectful debate.” 

He said he felt like the speakers used their platform to make derogatory, prejudiced remarks that caused harm to the campus and that, “their claims were intentionally designed to provoke emotional reactions out of students to be used for social media content.” Lucas indicated the idea of “debating these claims was not possible whatsoever.”  

Lucas said in the future, he hopes him and his peers will have the opportunity to engage in respectful political debates that can “fuel progress across campus and beyond.” 

“I think it’s just a waste of time,” Tucker said. “They’re just really doing this for the sake of content. Not for having intelligent discussion or changing the minds of people.”

Tucker mentioned having a sit-down conversation or partaking in community work would be better alternatives than public debates. He feels this booth or similar events only lead to more aggression and hostility on our campus and amongst individuals.

“[That’s why] I was screaming at people, I think we should just go home.” Tucker said. 

About Reawaken USA 

Reawaken USA is a faith-based conservative movement “committed to restoring America’s moral and cultural foundations,” according to their website. The organization is currently on a tour of California,  visiting Berkeley before Cal Poly. They will be at the University of San Diego on March 10 and March 12. 

Their tour is sponsored by College Republicans of California and Patriot Mobile, a Christian-conservative wireless provider based in the USA, according to their website. Reawaken USA also has a program to establish chapters on college campuses.

Update, March 11, 11:45 a.m.: Jackson Lucas emailed Mustang News before publication requesting additional context to be added to quotes. At the time of his interview, he was present at the event for two minutes and his opinion of it changed quickly after. This article was updated to reflect those changes.