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Chapter of the Month: UW-Madison YAF

Chapter of the Month: UW-Madison YAF

By

laurenmccue

May 10, 2016

IMG_8293Earlier this semester at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison) UW Blackout, a Black Lives Matter group, was the most active group on campus. UW-Madison Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) decided to change this by increasing their chapter’s presence, and bringing Dinesh D’Souza in response to speak about diversity and the Left’s distorted view of “social justice.” For their resilient response to leftist attacks and an overall effective activism strategy, UW-Madison YAF is named chapter of the month for April. From the beginning, UW-Madison YAF faced push back from the Left. The student government wanted them to change the title of their event, “Leftist Diversity: Excluding All Ideas Except Their Own”, but the chapter stood their ground and refused to give in to the Left’s demands. Chairman Jake Regner said that “ the Left was more surprised than anything that we were holding this kind of event at UW-Madison” proving that YAF filled the dire need for bold conservative activism on campus. UW-Madison YAF was committed to actively promoting D’Souza’s appearance for over a month leading up to it. In addition to tabling in 30 degree weather, sending out numerous emails, and even personally reaching out to conservative and liberal student groups, UW-Madison YAF plastered their campus with fliers numerous times a week, just to have them vandalized, defaced, and torn down. These YAFers stayed true to the motto “For every flier a leftist tears down, a YAFer is going to post ten more.” Their efforts paid off as evident by the audience of 200 people in attendance, and even more viewing live online. Much of the chapter’s success can be credited to their attendance and active participation in January’s YAF Activism Training Seminar at YAF HQ this past January. The chapter took all they learned from the top activism experts in the Conservative Movement and directly applied it to their event. Their focus on building their presence and effectively responding to a current hot button issue proved to be a successful activism strategy. In addition to attending January’s YAF Activism Training, several UW-Madison YAFers attended the Nashville Freedom conference, and participated in the GPA Tax Day video contest. Moving forward Jake Regner tells YAF, “We’re all pumped for next semester. The majority of our executive board consisted of freshmen so I am very impressed with how much experience they have heading into their sophomore year. We applied for and received an office for next year in our Student Activity Center and we can move in to that starting in August.” The chapter plans on participating in all of YAF’s activism initiatives and eventually hosting another big name speaker. Chairman Jake Regner is supported by the following leadership team: Vice-Chair Ellen Schutt, Director of Recruiting Kara Bell, Digital Director Matthew Morrissette, Director of Events Evan Degler, Director of Media Jack Rieder, and Directors of Reconnaissance Adrian Arcoleo, Jordan Lehmann. Congratulations to UW-Madison YAF! We can’t wait to see how you’re going to rock your campus this fall.  

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All Media

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The New Guard

About

About Us

Staff Members

Our Boards

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