Conservative activists at Loyola University Chicago were planning to bring best-selling author and Young America’s Foundation lecturer Karl Rove to their campus for the fall semester. Administrators at the university, however, are claiming that Rove cannot speak because he is a “political” speaker, and that would put their 501(c)(3) tax status in jeopardy.

The university claims that the Internal Revenue Service has become stricter with not-for-profit institutions this year. News broke recently that the university is hosting Eboo Patel, an apointee of the Obama administration, to speak on campus. If the school is truly concerned about their tax status, they would not host a respresentative of the Obama administration that has a vested interest in the fall elections.

Outraged? We are too. Here is the entire series of events in timeline format:

April, 2010: Sean Patrick Vera, a conservative activist at Loyola University Chicago, reaches out to Young Amierca’s Foundation asking if we could help sponsor an event with Karl Rove.

April, 2010: Loyola’s Unified Student Government Association votes in favor  of allocating funds to bring Karl Rove to campus in the fall semester.

April 15, 2010: Karl Rove is formerly invited to speak at Loyola.

April 22, 2010: Young America’s Foundation finalizes details with Karl Rove. It is decided that the date of October 19, 2010 works best for everyone.

May 4, 2010: A contract is finalized with Karl Rove and Young America’s Foundation for the event.

May 17, 2010: Loyola sends their speaker contract to be signed by Young America’s Foundation. The Foundation responds immediately.

July 6, 2010: Kimberly Moore, director of student affairs and Greek affairs at Loyola University Chicago, informs students that Karl Rove cannot speak because, “the timing is problematic given the campaign cycle.”

July 21, 2010: Young America’s Foundation responds to the university’s decission with a press release. (To see the press release, click here.)

July 25, 2010: The popular blog Gateway Pundit covers the controversy, garnering more online coverage.

July 28, 2010: Fox News.com posts a story on the controversy. The story is featured on their homepage, and at the time of this posting has been recommended on Facebook more than 500 times and has more than 400 comments.

The story will not end there though. Young America’s Foundation fully intends on fighting the university administration on this blantant display of hyprocrisy. That is why we are announcing the “LET KARL SPEAK” campaign.

You can get involved. Post this blog post to your Facebook and Twitter accounts, and tell your friends. Spread the word. More people becoming outraged means that more pressure will be placed on the university.

You can follow Young America’s Foundation’s efforts to LET KARL SPEAK on Twitter by following @yaf.

Or support the cause on Facebook by friending us, and sharing our stories there.