The state organization governing College Republicans chapters in Michigan attempted to audit Hillsdale College’s chapter last month, claiming it has an artificially inflated membership.
Chapter membership determines the number of delegates a school can send to the Michigan Federation of College Republicans’ state convention.
“It seemed to me every member of the credentials committee agreed that it was suspicious that roughly one third of the student population of Hillsdale College was on the list as active members,” said Aleks Oslapas, a member of the Michigan Federation of College Republicans’ credentials committee.
On March 26, the 465 members of Hillsdale’s chapter received an email from Oslapas requesting they participate in a survey to determine the level of their involvement.
According to the MFCR constitution, membership in College Republicans is determined by individual students providing the chapter with their contact information. The chapter president is also required to recognize those on its membership list as active members. Additional specifications of membership are not required except by a two-thirds majority of the state federation’s executive board.
Hillsdale College Republicans’ leadership say the audit singled out Hillsdale’s chapter.
“We were uncomfortable because it was really more of the fact that we were the only school,” Hillsdale College Republicans Trustee senior Sam Holdeman said. “In many ways, it felt targeting.”
Later the same day, Holdeman responded to the email, instructing members not to participate. MFCR’s constitution requires approval from the executive board before adding membership requirements — approval which was not given before the credentials committee contacted Hillsdale, Holdeman said.
Because the audit was not completed and Hillsdale’s membership is so large, the school was awarded 39 percent of the total delegates for the April 3 convention.
Many students who received the audit email said they do not consider themselves active members.
“I’m not an active member by any stretch of the imagination,” senior Elisabeth Wynia said. “I haven’t gone to any events and don’t really consider myself a member, even though I’m on their email list. They were going around asking to sign people up for their email list, and I felt too bad to say no.”
