Stony Brook denies club's bias claim

An organization for young, politically conservative Long Islanders has accused Stony Brook University of discriminating against a campus conservative group, a charge university officials say is inaccurate.

The university this semester denied "recognition and funding" for Young Americans for Freedom, a nationwide campus group that has had a chapter at Stony Brook for about two years, said Doug Smith, president of the West Islip-based Conservative Society for Action's Next Generation group.

Smith, 20, said the university singled out Young Americans for Freedom, a 50-year-old group commonly called YAF, because it is a Republican-leaning group. He pointed to the existence of several liberal student groups on campus.

But Lauren Sheprow, a university spokeswoman, said YAF is "a recognized group on campus" that has never been discriminated against by Stony Brook's administration. In fact, the university has worked with YAF on the group's 9/11 memorial. She said funding for student clubs is handled by the university's student-run Undergraduate Student Government. A program adviser who works with YAF is "not aware of an application" for funding, Sheprow said.

Smith, a student at St. Joseph's College in Patchogue, said Stony Brook University fosters an unwelcoming climate for campus conservatives. "It concerns me that the student government sanctions several left-liberal groups on campus, but apparently can only stomach one conservative group," he said. College Republicans also has a chapter on the Stony Brook campus.

Attempts to contact Rachael Doukas, president of Stony Brook YAF, and representatives for YAF's national office in Washington were not successful.

YAF's national website includes a link to an online petition titled "Help Stony Brook University YAF Fight Against its Biased Administration." The petition accused Stony Brook of suppressing "the expansion of conservative minded student organizations," which Sheprow denied.