Hello MadamMem,

Thanks for asking! I’m actually close friends with one of the students with the group, and the main spokesperson from them is not directly against Cruz. He was the leader of a group of students who wore “I stand with Rand” shirts at the announcement, because Cruz announced his campaign at a tri-weekly meeting that all students are required to go to. They don’t directly support Cruz, and didn’t want their attendance at the announcement to be misconstrued as support, so they wore the t-shirts to show that. They were supported by the President of the college and several other students for their decision (President’s statement here: http://www.liberty.edu/news/index.cfm?PID=18495&MID=152118).

Now in regards to Yik-Yak–I can’t and won’t deny that. There is a small, and surprisingly vocal group of complainers that does not like attending the tri-weekly convocation, and so they spend much of their time complaining about it. It’s gotten much better since the fall, but it is certainly the go-to place if you want to anonymously complain about anything and everything for free internet points. If I were to put a number on the heavily active Yik-Yak complainers, I would put it at about 40 or so out of the 13,800 students that attend here, tops. They certainly have their free right to say what they wish, but it is sad to see such a vocal minority casting a less than favorable light on the majority.

Also, some of the news networks took snaps of fresh Yik-Yaks–ones that had just been posted and not voted on. Complaining is more and more being downvoted into oblivion. I’ll list the top Yaks today for you, for reference.

– (tag jerryistheman) “Can we just acknowledge how much our school’s president cares about us for a second. Like we messed up and he was like BUT YOU CANT PROVE IT. Like a protective dad. Dude we are lucky”. 112 upvotes

— (tag update) “I posted a few weeks ago asking for prayer as I started counseling…just wanted to say that it’s going great and I’m gaining so much healing in my life…thanks for the prayers!”. 72 upvotes.

— “Oddly enough, I actually prefer seeing Yik Yak flooded with political debate instead of thirsty people soliciting sex or other idiots randomly [redacted]posting”. 70 upvotes.

While I won’t go out and say that the school is a perfect, shining example of an institution–no institution is and I think we can all agree on that–I will say that they do most things right. In retrospect, perhaps making attendance optional for this occasion would have been the best choice for not giving the media fodder to misconstrue Cruz’s speech would have been a better decision, but hindsight is 20/20. I do know going into it, the school was more or less pitching it as an announcement, and the fact that it was a school-wide event did not seem to be an issue before it was made one.

And I’ll give my last bit on your last bit. The university is very much embracing diversity, and so we get a wide variety of diversity when we have speakers come and speak at Convocation. Because this is a conservative, evangelical Christian school, the speakers tend to be from that sector. However, we do still get people that very few students agree with, such as Donald Trump or a liberal congressman (forgive me, his name is slipping my mind) to speak. It was very enlightening to hear their views, the congressman especially, and even though I don’t entirely agree with his points, he was received very respectfully by the students and even though the majority of students did not agree with his views, they certainly listened and learned. That is the goal of Convocation, and one that is easily lost by several news networks in the series of yellow-papering a story. We’ve had politicians come through here with entirely optional speeches to attend, and they got a warm reception as well. All-in-all it’s a very beneficial system, and the wonderful thing is that if it were not so and enough students were of that mindset, the president, who is very much loved by the students, would fix it.

Thanks for asking and I hope my long-winded response didn’t bore you or scare you off. If anyone else has any questions I would be glad to answer them.