The future of the College Republicans at the Duke University remains unclear after allegations that the club’s executive board removed a member because he is gay.
For now, despite a series of votes by the Duke Student Government, the Duke College Republicans still have student funding and their campus charter. But lawsuits are looming.
Last spring, the chairman of the chapter, Justin Robinette, was impeached and removed from office — he says it’s because he’s gay, the College Republicans say he misused funds.
In April, Robinette lost his case in the Duke student judiciary, which refused to hear it when he filed a second case in August. The judiciary refused to hear the case on the grounds of criminal allegations, such as anonymous death threats received by Robinette, included in the suit.
In September, the Duke student senate took up the case.
Reaction to the information Robinette presented before the Duke student senate has provoked a maelstrom of student reaction at the university, including calls by the Duke Chronicle editorial board for the university to disband the College Republicans.
The reactions largely center around the 54-page set of documents Robinette presented during the senate hearing, which include emails with racist and anti-Semitic sentiments. Many of the full email threads are missing, though, and some emails lack subject lines or other contextual information.
More about the case and the documents presented can be found at the Student Free Press Association.
