GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — The University of Florida says it will cancel the campus College Republicans as a registered student group after being notified that some members engaged in anti-Semitism.
The deactivation effort on the University of Florida campus marks the second time this month that a Florida public university has taken action against a Republican group accused of engaging in racist or anti-Semitic conduct.
Earlier this month, Florida International University in Miami launched an investigation into a group chat initiated by an official of the Miami-Dade chapter of the Republican Party that included violent racist slurs, anti-Semitic remarks and misogynistic language. The conversation involved Florida International University students and several top conservative leaders.
University of Florida officials said over the weekend that they were notified by the Florida Federation of College Republicans that it had disbanded its Gainesville campus chapter after determining that some members had “engaged in a pattern of behavior that violates its rules and values, including recent anti-Semitic gestures.”
University of Florida officials said in a statement that when the Florida Federation of College Republicans is ready, the university will help relaunch the campus chapter under new student leadership.
Last fall, the New York Republican State Committee suspended a Young Republicans group after it posted a group chat that included rape jokes and flippant comments about gas chambers.