watch live on saturday at 6:00 p.m. eastern on c-span2's book tv. c-span, where history unfolds daily. in 1979, c-span was created as a public service by america's cable television companies, and is brought to you today by your cable or satellite provider. more now from the recent conservative political action conference. the next panel talks about how conservative students can effectively organize on college campuses. speakers include matthew spaulding, dean of hillsdale college, and morris jones, and a host for the blaze tv network. this is just over half an hour. [ applause ]

>> good afternoon, cpac. my name is bryan bernys. we welcome you all to the panel today. i think we've got a very interesting panel. and a very interesting topic here. our four guest panelists have a varying degree of backgrounds and different aspects they can bring to this topic. i'm going to introduce them, let them each give a couple minutes on the topic, and then get right into it. i think this panel is especially interesting on what trigger warnings, and the current nanny state of the college campus and what we can do to protect the snowflake generation from themselves. [ applause ] so my first guest, of the panel here is dr. matthew spalding. matthew spalding is the associate vice president and dean at educational programs at hillsdale college here in washington, d.c.

he is also the best selling author of we still hold these truths. and in addition, he has taught at hillsdale college as well as george mason university and catholic university. >> great to be with you. i see some of the hillsdale students are still here. we already believe in all this nonsense. we're microaggressionists all the time. we don't have any trigger warnings. we believe someone goes to college to learn something. the problem is people aren't learning anything. this is not the educational project. i think what we're seeing is a complete playing out, devolution, if you will, of the modern academy. this is what happens when you turn, going back to 1960s, and prior to that, to absolute moral revelism. now they're devouring themselves. we see the absolute absurdities

on the campus. what i fear now is it will be connected to not only the campus administration which has the power to enforce speech codes, but also more and more the federal government through title 9 and things like that. this is where liberalism is going to kind of soft intellectual despotism that we're seeing in a lot of the big college campuses. >> madison ge si oto, a commentator who appears frequently on fox news. she was also a regional press secretary for president trump's inauguration as well as a national surrogate. madison is in her final semester of law school at ohio state university, and formally served as the staff editor for the ohio state journal of criminal law. madison is also an athlete, a beauty queen in 2014, she captured the coveted title of miss ohio usa. so madison, welcome. [ cheers and applause ] >> thank you so much. it's so great to be with everybody today and here at cc pack with my fellow panelists.

i want to give a quig thank you to matt. they put together another incredible cpac. they're role models to me and so many other people in this room. so thank you to them. [ applause ] now, my family emigrated here less than 100 years ago. they came to chase the american dream. they moved across land and sea to experience the unpar reled freedoms of the united states of america, a country where every one of us is guaranteed to free speech and freedom of religion. but to their dismay, and so many of you in this room, free speech has practically been what i would say has been thrown out the window on college campuses. i myself was the target of attacks for writing an article in the "washington times" that i feel is important to today's society. and that's abortion in the black community. i was threatened and harassed, but i didn't back down. i know i'm not the only one in the room who's been there. i know so many of you like me have dealt with this. or seen your children,

grandchildren, friends or family members deal with this on their campuses. you've seen the snowflakes and the negative effects that faith base has on college campuses today. but the reality remains that the future of conservatism is at stake, the future of our nation is at stake, and our future leaders will not be produced from state spaces. there are no state bases. so i think it's important to have young sktconservatives her today. i've seen the faces of our future leaders. the young conservatives are people who are not afraid to voice their opinion. they refuse to be stifled by the unwillingness of others to accept police behaviors or views different from their own. as we continue to see the troubling trends of liberal administrations, overly sensitive what we like to call snowflakes on campuses, i think it's very important we continue to not back down and to not react based on our emotions. the most important thing young

conservatives can be doing is stand up for what's right and what's moral, for speaking truth, and refusing to back down. thank you, guys, so much for coming in. i'm so glad to be with you. [ applause ] >> our next panelist, amanda owens is the founder of future female leaders, future if emale leaders often affectionately of ffl. they've built a community of hundreds of thousands of women who support each other on college campuses. >> hi. thank you so much for having me. can we give a round of applause for cpac and the acu. [ applause ] i'm so excited to be here to share what our organization does on college campuses. and my journey. i started future if emale leaders in my college dorm room. it started as an anom mouse twitter account. i started that because i was very involved in the 2012

election, supported mitt romney passionately. i think i started getting the nickname that conservative girl on campus. and i was getting unfriended on facebook. i was getting names thrown at me. i was still a young girl trying to grow her confidence and grow, you know, professionally and personally. and so i saw myself just wanting an outlet to get my ideas out there. and so i created that account. and i tweeted about politics. i tweeted about the 2012 election. and i also talked about, you know, the highs and lows of being a young conservative woman on campus. and it really resonated with a lot of women. we grew our social media very quickly, and we found that we were hitting a niche of girls that felt like their views were not being represented on college campus. women were not representing them. because they were conservative. and i see that there is so much, you know, hatred and unacceptance of conservative,

all conservatives, but especially conservative women. here at future female leaders, we have a motto saying being a conservative woman can be hard, but we try to make it easier. i'm so excited to talk to you guys today about what we're doing on college cam p uses to try to bring a platform to women conservatives and conservatives all across -- you know, all identities. >> thank you, amanda. our final panelist, lawrence jones, is an author, a conservative radio show host, and he also is a contributor and guest hosts on the dana show on the blaze. lawrence jones. [ applause ] >> those that value freedom, but refuse to agitate, and hate agitation, are just like men who want to have crops but refuse to plow the ground. those are the words of frederick

douglass. and i'm here to tell you guys in the words of andrew breitbart, freedom does not care about your feelings. [ cheers and applause ] and just because many on the left sent their kids to school without hurting their feelings, it is not our job to coddle their feelings. and if we don't stop -- i was on msnbc earlier today, and they got upset and offended because i said obama took care of the latinos, but not the black community. [ applause ] and they were like msnbc, why do you have him on. and all this. and i saw my comfort friends saying, how could they say that about you? how can they say that about a black man? i'm like, guys, just stop. i'm not a snowflake, okay? because -- [ applause ] like frederick douglass, i can

fight, like booker t. washington, i can build. and if you cross me, i will defend myself. [ cheers and applause ] so i am honored to be on this panel. i hope that the young people that are in this crowd today leave more inspired than ever, to take on not only the students on the campuses, but the liberal professors that try to target us, scare us. [ cheers and applause ] kick us off of campus. we are more stronger than ever, and we're coming back after cpac with a nice message for them. come and take it. [ cheers and applause ] >> all right, guys. so how this town hall panel is going to work, is we're actually going to take questions from you. there are two microphones over there as well as facebook and twitter. to get us started off, my role working with college students,

conservative across the country as well as on campus reform, this is something we hear about all day long, the ridiculous trigger warnings, safe spaces. and the question becomes, what are we doing for the next generation of leaders. one can only imagine if this existed when elizabeth warren went to college, we probably would have had a trigger war filed every day in the u.s. senate. what can these young conservatives out here in the audience do to make a difference on their campus? what should they do immediately when they leave here at cpac here today monday morning when they get back to the college campus? do you want to start? >> organize. you know, as conservatives, we have to have a real conversation with ourselves. we do a poor job in organizing. and part of the problem is because sometimes we become babies. and we allow ourselves to be bullied on these campuses. you have a right to be on campus. especially if you're paying all that damn money. [ cheers and applause ] if they try to kick you off

campus, go to the coffee shop down the street. if they try to scare you, make sure that you pass campus carry on the campus, that way when they try to come for you, you can raise your gun up and say back down. it's about organizing. i know that may make some people uncomfortable. but it's the truth. it's the truth. they shut us down on every single campus. yes, we're going to have some controversial figures. but what do they have? so i encourage us to fight. >> anybody else? >> i think going along with what he's saying, when we look at college students today, for every student standing up and trying to speak out, there are probably ten more that have been silenced by what's going on. continuing to reach out to these students and get them involved and make them realize, this is just the beginning for us. conservatives are the future of the country. they're our future leaders. they need to continue to reach out to those students who have dealt with these situations and haven't received the support

that they've deserved from their administrations and professors. >> the first question from the audience. >> my name's evan thayer in new york. but i live in the san francisco bay area now. the free speech on college campuses, is it a failure of institutions, or is it a failure of parenting and families? >> matt? >> i suppose in a certain sense it's a failure of all the above. what we're seeing on campuses now, this intolerance from the left, naturally comes out of where the left has been for some time. it's been going this way. and they gave up a long time ago on the idea that there's some aspect of truth, or something that education is meant to be there for in the first place. once they've done that, once they believe that all truths are relative, and once the culture accepts that, and the administration starts working

with those students and listening to them, you now have radical tenured leftists on the faculty, now the administrations of the colleges which in the '60s were opposed to this, are cooperative. you put all this together and it naturally goes in this direction. this has been a long time coming. this has been going on for some time. the culture is moving, the media's moving in this direction. that makes it all the more important for conservatives on campus to work together, to organize, to find and support faculty that are friendly to your arguments on campus and work with them. there aren't that many of us, but keep in mind, we're not merely protecting our free speech, our ability to make arguments, but we're preserving something that the modern academy has given up on, namely, defending western civilization and what it stands for. [ applause ] if we're not going to do that, who is going to do that. >> let's take our next question-here. >> my name is brendan cassell.

i'm from the occupied south in bethesda, maryland. i'm a senior in high school and i'll be attending texas a&m in the fall. [ applause ] thank you. this may be a more conservative university, what kind of resistance can i expect from liberal staff and liberal students and how do i handle that at the college level? >> madison? >> first of all, congratulations. i have a younger sister starting college there as well. you are going to receive a lot of, i would say unfair treatment in the classroom. this is something i've seen at the law school and i've seen a lot of other people talk about it, at their universities at the undergrad level. when you're in class and you're going through these types of situations, it can be really difficult. but you can't stop raising your hand because one time a professor tries to shut you down. continue to speak up for what's right and moral. you need to continue to speak truth. that can be really difficult. that's the number one thing you need to do. one thing i advocate a lot of

students to do as well, you know, most of the time it's going to be conservatives and religious students that are going to be discriminated against. but if you see a liberal student that has their free speech, that's the first time i stand up as well. i don't care if i agree with anything they're saying. i agree with their right to say it. and that's what we have to remember. that's what we're fighting for. that's what we want them to do for us. we have to set that example by doing that for them as well. if you encounter that in a more conservative class. >> do we have a question from social media? >> alono would like to say what would you say to conservatives, or those who claim conservatives are insensitive by fighting against safe spaces and trigger warnings? >> fake news. >> amanda, do you want to take this one? >> i want to say for the great question. i think that's important. we want to make sure we're representing free speech. but we also want to maintain a

positive message of conservatism. i think that's really important. that's what my organization does. i think that that's how we gain independence, and can get some people converted from -- get them seeing the light from democrats over to republicans. and, you know, just having -- talking to them in a way that resonates with them. and get personal. share personal stories of why you're a conservative. when you humanize yourself, it becomes a lot harder to tear you down and call you names. so get personal with them. share personal stories. and humanize yourself. because we're not monsters like they claim us to be. [ applause ] >> let's go to the next question from the audience. >> my name is claude. i'm a college student going to stonybrook university in long island. my question is, as a conservative of color, i've

heard many folks claiming you can't be a conservative and a person of color. typically when insults get thrown around, the discussion ends. how do you keep the discussion going, and try to change their point of view. >> first of all, i'm proud to be chocolate. [ cheers and applause ] i love my people. okay? and this whole notion that, oh, you've got to fit this. do they realize what black folks were originally? they freed the slaves? we were the first in congress. those were black folks. black folks founded the republican party of texas. and are still active in texas. [ cheers and applause ] my people have been fighting way too long to allow people on college campuses to tell us how to eat, how to think, and which base to be on. the sacred space for you is at home, okay? i'm not against safe spaces. go home.

this is the real world. there is no safe space but your home. that's all you got. [ cheers and applause ] >> all right. we've got one more question over here. i go to depaul university in lincoln park, illinois. and my question is on social justice indoctrination in high schools. and my example is nutria university in winnetka, illinois. i know i read in the "wall street journal" last weekend that they're going to have an event on february 20th that's called today's struggle for racial civil rights. and i was wondering if there's like ways to combat that in a sense that they're not really inviting any civil rights speakers and i know parents are very frustrated about that. so i wonder if you have any advice for them. >> home school. >> look, the objective of progressive education was to take over the educational system

in the united states, and we see it going on in the college but it's much more decadent in many ways at the high school level, especially on things like social justice or education, the types of progressive education they want to shape. it's extremely destructive because the problem we face is if people become immune to this and accepting of it by the time you're in college when you're supposed to be liberating the mind, opening it to the great ideas that we have to teach, you've really destroyed the whole project. this is why how we have education reform and how we get government out of the way and empower parents at the high school level especially to control their education is absolutely key because otherwise the modern state is going to continue down this path. and that's what's driving a lot of this, is the politics behind it and the political correctness of the modern government. >> so you guys, we've talked about what the students can do,

organize and fight back. but what can they do more specifically and should the parents get involved because we're not just talking about this happening at small little private schools. this is happening at major state schools that are funded by all of your taxpayer dollars. at what point does the general citizenry need to get in and fight back and try to challenge some of these presidents of the university and the board of regents? >> yeah. >> go ahead, madison. >> ladies first. i think one of the biggest things i noticed was very helpful on my campus was counteracting by holding your own events. getting people in your community. it doesn't have to be just students. i reached out to people in the pro life community with my issue specifically. i write the column talking about the statistics of abortion in the black community. i received threats for people to beat me up. they said they wanted to rape me so i know what it's like to want an abortion. they started holding bowling for abortion at the school. it's a very difficult situation. i said as i move forward i can't just sit back and let this happen. even if i get over it and i'm okay i need to do something for this cause.

i stepped forward, reached out to pro-life groups in my community and i held my own events. i went out and spoke about this, spoke with politicians in my state. reach out to your local politicians. they can be very helpful and hold these events. basically doing what they're doing for your cause. >> okay. real quick? >> especially as it relates to your social justice warrior i think messaging is a key component when dealing with the left on this. and my big sister, she's somewhere out there, sunny johnson at breitbart does an excellent job telling us how to defend ourselves. and it's important to realize when the social justice warriors are talking about white supremacy, they're talking about institution racism, when we all say it doesn't exist it's a problem. it exists in their progressive institutions. you guys own this. you created this. so don't come at us and talk about white privilege and progressive policies and that we

need to be diverse when hollywood is so white and you guys are always saying why isn't it diversity there? don't come at us. your institutions founded this. so you guys own it. [ applause ] >> let's go back to the audience. >> hi. my name's nicole bean, and i'm the chairman of the depaul college republicans, same place as katie, and we were recently named friar's worst school for free speech 2017. so how do you think that we can combat private institutions prohibiting free speech and speakers? >> i think getting involved like madison said. getting involved with like-minded groups. we are so blessed to have so many awesome groups on our community and our campuses. i think there's something to be said for strength in numbers. let your voice be heard and let's turn it into a roar.

let's connect with your community, get involved with local politicians on the state level and just get a big crowd and let's let everyone know what's going on. >> you've probably taken the first step by contacting a great group like fire or lions defending freedom to help you fight back as a student on your own campus against those policies. >> and can we be more unified? i know we had a tough primary. but it's over. we've got a president now. it's time to like unite and fight against the left. they always unify at the end. y'all saw bernie sell his soul at the end. so we can unify and get it done. >> and even on a campus like yours it's not about the numbers. if you can get large numbers that's ideal. but even if you can get five or six people together, at my law school i got five or six girls together. that's not a lot. the liberal organizations had more. but we were able to make a difference. get together who you can.

make the most out of it. just don't ever let them silence you. >> let me ask you all too, do you think in the wake of the election this is actually changing, there's a momentum that changes? we've seen a number of states such as arizona, tennessee, north carolina and the state legislators starting to take up bills to demand free speech on all public and college campuses. >> look, the republicans control more state houses than they have ever in the past since the 1920s. so they've got a lot of leverage. and i come back to my general point here. i think that free speech as it's been presented is extremely important. we should fight these battles precisely as you guys have laid out. but we've got to keep in mind this is a political battle of great import. when it comes to republican campuses the state needs to use more leverage over them to impose more rules for truth, free speech. when it comes to private institutions that's harder. how do you get leverage over them? one thing is break up the monopoly they have and the

complete liberal model of higher education. absolutely corrupt. they're get 30% and 40% of their budget from government. this can't go on that way. this is a much larger political problem than merely, although it's extremely important, than merely free speech. we must defend our free speech. but that's a defensive move. we need to go on the offense and go after the academy. large segments of the academy, especially these with huge endowments and they're paying $60,000 for tuition and room. it's absolutely absurd. until there's room for them to allow this discussion that allows for conservative voices we're not going to see any change from those campuses. >> my name's linda and i'm from houston. i want to object to one thing. you're talking about young conservatives. i'm 60 and i'm a graduate student at university because i'm still there.

two weeks ago i just about got kicked out of my third out of nine classes for expressing conservative views. the first class i was -- she tried to kick me out of the program because i said something politically incorrect. she apologized the next week because apparently i was right. the next time i objected to studies that were showing that conservatives were young -- i'm sorry, not young. fat, ugly, and a whole bunch of other things. and i questioned the whole methodology. it was later shown i was right, they were wrong, and they -- never mind. and two weeks ago i objected to someone talking about the myth of welfare queens and he just threatened to kick me out. i was in massachusetts when dukakis was -- that was the only state he took and i was one of the heads of the state college of republicans. so i'm tough and can take it and will continue to speak out. but i'm really concerned about young -- the real young people. how are they going to speak up

when i'm getting shut down like this? and i've got a ton of guts and a lot of experience but they don't. >> i'll start. i think like i said before they just can't back down. and it's so difficult. it's not easy by any means, but there's amazing organizations out there that will work with them. like fire, like alliance defending freedom, like concerned women for america. all three of these organizations really stepped up and helped me. i had professors and students who were trying to get me to either resign or get kicked off from being a staff editor on the law journal at my law school, which they had no ability to do, but they tried anyways. and so they need to continue to reach out to these organizations and i think we as people who are standing up can continue to do what we can to talk to them to make them aware of them. not all students are aware these organizations exist or they can do this. >> i think one thing you and any other student who matter what their age is and can start doing is holding these professors accountable. record that professor, report

that story to campus reform or the college fix. and get that out there so everybody can see just what's going on in america's college classrooms. i think we have time for one last question, so we'll go here. >> my name is sheryl howell and i live in fairfax county and i love hearing about the importance of the younger generation. not that i'm against the older generation. but i got hooked in high school from my government teacher who demanded that everybody had to participate in the election process by joining either the young republican or young democrat party and help campaign. because in virginia there's always an election. i talk about this a lot on rnc questionnaires, everywhere. when i see young college republicans. i'm like you guys i think really need to get into the high schools and start establishing

young republican clubs. again, our message is a winning message. our message is not about color. it's not about age. it's about quality of life and our heritage, which embraces everybody. and the liberals have highjacked our message and are trying to define us and we need to get back into the schools. our future voters are in high school. and we need to get them, equip them so that when they do get to college and they do have to deal with these professors they can have the confidence to push back and have the tools to know who to contact on the administration because one thing the liberals like to do is repeat what they hear. but when you ask a liberal why do you think that way they can't answer the question. >> i think that's more a statement than a question. but it's a great point made. i want to let each one of the panelists have a final thought before time's up on this panel. >> i'll talk about her question.

i think we have to take some responsibility as republicans for this as well. i beat up on the liberals enough already. there was a point in time my seasoned republicans out there where they used to tell us hey young people, wait your turn, wait your turn. and the meantime, the liberals were recruiting people that couldn't even vote yet to knock on doors. and then when we got our tails kicked then we wanted the young people to be involved. it's our fault. and it's time for the grandparents and the mothers and fathers take their kids and put them in front of them to explain to them what's going on. >> i have a 10-year-old son. he was here at cpac on thursday missing school. >> amanda, final thoughts? >> i started my organization future female leaders because i felt alone on college campuses. and i didn't know what to do. but i knew i wanted my voice to be heard and i did the only

then i knew to do, which was get on social media and try to have a megaphone and try to speak for conservative principles. i think it's absolutely absurd that the professors are supposed to be leading by example and they are pushing safe spaces and trigger warnings and coddling our future leaders. >> madison? >> i just want to make a quick comment about we're in an environment right now where we have a president of the united states who supports our movement, supports our message. we control the house and the senate and we control so many seats within our own states. so this is the time where we're going to make the most difference as ever before. we need to come together and unite. and like i said we have the support of our amazing president donald j. trump. he's going to do great things for us. let's get behind him and use that to make changes on our campuses and our states. >> dr. spalding? >> i think these are all great comments. it's been a great panel. i thank my panelists. but your point about high school education is absolutely correct.

this is why hillsdale college among others is starting charter schools all over the country. education is what it's all about. what we need is just better education. good education. my last thought would be to encourage you to keep in mind going to college is not fighting between the left and the right. it's not about conservatism and liberalism. it's about learning. it's about good teaching. and you should make the most of that. and the most important thing you should do is if you're a conservative or you think you're a conservative or you wish to conserve something and to be truly liberating is to educate yourselves and to learn about the good, the true and the beautiful. those are the high things and that's what makes life worth living. that's why you're conservative. that's what we wish to conserve. and the best thing you can do is have a good formation and understand and know those things because then you can have those fights but if you don't know those things you won't be in a position to do so. that's the most important thing. get the most out of your college education. and if you're not at a good

college, come to hillsdale or take an online course. there are places where you can learn this. but get a good education. >> i want to thank all the panelists for being on the panel today. and i want to thank all the students attending cpac. i would challenge all you guys to try to go back and make a difference on your campus so we can have a panel like this next year talking about all the victories you already accomplished in one year on your campus. thank you. ♪ this is going to be the best day of my life ♪ [ applause ] >> yes attorney general jeff sessions recused himself from any investigations focusing on russia's involvement in 2016's presidential election. today, house democratic leader nancy pelosi responded to the attorney general's announcement saying that it didn't go far enough. while you can see all of her comments online at c-span.org by typing pelosi into