Interior shot of UBCO campus/ Credit UBCO website

By Vernon Matters Staff

political rejection

Conservative politicians angry at UBCO club refusal

Mar 13, 2025 | 1:20 PM

There’s been an angry backlash to a decision by the University of BC Okanagan (UBCO) Student Union to deny a request for a Conservative Club on campus.

The Okanagan Conservative Club made the request recently but has shared the student union’s email of rejection via social media.

In denying the request the student union’s vice president-internal Rajat Arora said concerns were raised among its directors regarding “…certain views associated with the party—particularly those regarding the Black and LGBTQ+ communities— [which] could make students from these groups feel excluded or unwelcome.”

In a post on X, BC Conservative Party leader John Rustad said the denial of a club was ‘the inevitable result of out of control radical leftist activism in BC’s academia.’

“No woke, activist student council should be allowed to determine which political parties students can join or associate with. UBCO students must be allowed to opt-out of union dues for their broken, woke union,” Rustad said.

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Lake Country MP, Conservative Tracy Gray called the situation disturbing.

“There are other political clubs at UBCO and UBC,” Gray said in a post on X. “Universities should be a place of open discussion of ideas for students, not censorship. I hope this decision is reversed.”

In his email, the student union’s Arora said the board’s decision stands and there was no appeal process for club ratification at this time.

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