It’s been about six months since the Western Culture Club invited Jared Taylor to speak at CMU. In that time, many questions went unanswered, and some information was pushed to the margins to make way for the bigger picture.
Taylor’s presence on campus prompted a strong reaction in both the student body and the Grand Junction community. Local political influencer Dean Withers decided to come to the event, however, none of the content he collected has been used on any of his accounts.
President John Marshall dismissed Withers’ presence at the Unity Event as a nuisance. He said Withers’ attempt to engage him by putting the microphone in his face “probably worked well in his parents’ basement.”
Withers’ initial reaction on Instagram was a story that tagged CMU and Marshall in it. Followers that saw this flooded both CMU and Marshall’s instagram accounts with comments.
“Don’t spread hate or willfully allow it to be spread on your campus,” wrote @arianafelicity on a photo of Marshall posing with an elementary school class. That one photo has 253 comments and nearly all are related to the Taylor event.
“Allowing Jared Taylor on campus makes me embarrassed to put CMU on my resume!” wrote @x.gingerjean on a photo posted by the main CMU Instagram account. The photo of Temple Grandin visiting CMU also has over 800 comments referencing Taylor on it.
Although he was the target of the protest and the reason additional security was called in, Taylor told the Criterion that he had a generally nice time while in Grand Junction. Western Culuture Club president Maxwell Applebaugh, the driving force behind the event, took Taylor on a short hike to see the Colorado National Monument.
Taylor said he was asked not to attend the Unity Event by local law enforcement. He said he would have attended otherwise, after his speech had concluded.
“I wanted to ride the mechanical bull,” said Taylor.
Returning President of the Associated Student Government (ASG) Leilani Domingo, seemed to be caught in the crossfire of outrage over the Taylor event. When political science student Alex Austin approached her and the rest of the ASG Executive Team about hosting the Unity Event, she didn’t expect to be anything more than a facilitator for their goals, but eventually felt positioned at the forefront of the entire event.
“It was really overwhelming, I think. A lot of tears were shed. I had really good intentions and I wanted to be a voice for the students,” Domingo said. “As much as it was horrible that I had to be the outlet, I’m glad that it was me because I can handle it.”
Again, Domingo was caught between two men when she responded to an email from Taylor that was addressed to President John Marshall. In her response, she wrote that President Marshall would not be attending his speech, as he had already committed to attending the Unity Party.
Though the letter was addressed to Marshall directly, many people were on the mailing list, including the entire staff of the President’s Office, Domingo and the CMU Marketing Department. Domingo said that Vice President of Marketing David Ludlam indicated to her that she was able to respond. After Ludlam proofread the email, it was sent, and Domingo’s response was the only one Taylor received.
Domingo learned weeks later that Taylor posted a screenshot of her response to both his X (formerly Twitter) account and his personal blog, which have thousands of followers between them. The image, now removed from X but still up on his blog, included her professional titles, “Colorado Mesa University” and her program of study. Taylor did blur her name, however a quick Google search of the other credentials immediately populates her full name and image.
During that time, Domingo remembered receiving an email from someone that could have been connected to Taylor’s X post with her information. The X post has been taken down, but the post still remains on his personal blog.
“It was literally just a really rude email calling me like, you know, like yellow-skinned and that type of stuff,” Domingo said. She said she deleted it immediately.
Student Life Director Trey Downey said that law enforcement was monitoring several social media outlets about the event. Domingo said she was surprised nobody told her about this when it happened.
Applebaugh said that the Western Culture Club is always looking for opportunities to spark controversial dialogue but no new events from them have been reported. He is affiliated with a few other clubs on campus, namely Students for Life and Turning Point USA. Right-wing political activist Charlie Kirk was invited by the Turning Point USA chapter here on campus back in April, but it was denied because of short timing.
The Unity Fest is now a recurring event to commemorate the controversy.
“If you think about animating our values in really sharp contrast to the speaker, our students responded to hate with love,” said Marshall.
