Fort Lewis TPUSA Enrollment Stalls as 120,000 Post-Kirk Inquiries Bypass Fearful Campus Conservatives
Updated
Updated · Fox News · Sep 17
Fort Lewis TPUSA Enrollment Stalls as 120,000 Post-Kirk Inquiries Bypass Fearful Campus Conservatives
2 articles · Updated · Fox News · Sep 17
Summary
Fort Lewis College’s TPUSA chapter says membership has stayed essentially flat nearly a year after winning campus recognition, with students reluctant to join for fear of social and academic retaliation.
Rachel Cook, the chapter president, said conservatives are a small minority on campus and cited ostracism, harassment and one officer being spit at while tabling as reasons students stay away.
Fort Lewis College said it has received no reports this academic year involving harassment of TPUSA members and that students have systems to report safety concerns.
The chapter’s struggles persist despite a broader national rise in TPUSA interest after co-founder Charlie Kirk’s Sept. 10, 2025 assassination, which the organization said drew more than 120,000 chapter inquiries.
That contrast follows Fort Lewis’s own contentious chapter approval, when about 70 people attended a heated student-government meeting and anti-TPUSA demonstrators protested outside.