EXCLUSIVE: Woman tells conservative students she ‘personally impeached’ the last person involved with TPUSA on campus
'I hope this never works out... because I would be completely ashamed,' she says before walking away the woman says in a video obtained by Campus Reform.
One student explained to the woman that they were 'recruiting students to help start a chapter on campus' to promote the values of 'free speech, free markets, [and] limited government.'
Two student group representatives of the TPUSA chapter at Bradley University (BU), Illinois, appeared to be threatened by an unidentified female who approached the two during their tabling event. The woman alleged that she had impeached the last person involved with TPUSA on campus, a video obtained by Campus Reform confirms.
Leadership Institute Illinois Field Representative Grant Cooke and Turning Point USA Windy Territory Field Representative Jonathan Bontrager had been talking to students at BU about Turning Point USA.
“We were at our table passing out Turning Point material, had several enthusiastic students come out they were excited to help start a chapter on campus,” Bontrager told Campus Reform.
The video shows a female with a badge walking by before she stops and begins to approach the table and asks, “Why are you guys here?”
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Cooke told Campus Reform he had noticed the badge earlier but didn’t see the name and assumed the woman might work for the university.
“Yes, I'm assuming she's some type of student staff member. She had a Bradley University name badge on, one that's engraved with whatever her name was on it," Cooke said.
Bontrager explained to the woman that they were “recruiting students to help start a chapter on campus” to promote the values of “free speech, free markets, [and] limited government.”
“I just hope you know that we impeached the last student body president who was involved in this,” she replied pointing at the table. “I personally started that process.”
The woman continues stating she was “shocked” by their presence on campus.
“To be completely fair and brutally honest, I hope that this never works out at Bradley because I would be completely ashamed,” she says before walking away.
“It wasn't a direct threat to the existence of a chapter although implicitly she obviously doesn't want it to [exist],” Bontrager told Campus Reform. “I'm sure she would do whatever she could to try to make it not exist based on her sentiments.”
In November 2021, Erin Bousek was impeached as BU’s student body president for charges that remained “confidential” according to an article covering the incident from the student newspaper, The Bradley Scout.
Bousek pleaded not guilty to the charges but was impeached on November 8 and subsequently removed from office.
There was not a TPUSA chapter officially recognized by the private university in 2021 according to Cooke and Bontrager.
Campus Reform contacted Bradley University, the Student government, and made the best attempt to contact Bousek. This article will be updated accordingly.
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