The University of Rochester's College Republican club is speaking out after a former member and president of the club was accused of putting up white supremacist propaganda.
On Monday, 23-year-old Christopher Hodgman, of Bethesda, Maryland, was cited for allegedly violating town code by placing the flyers and stickers on public structures in Brighton. That is not a criminal charge.
Hodgman is a current UR student, and was President of the UR College Republicans club last year.
The current club president, Jose Fernandez, released a lengthy statement condemning the acts "as forcefully as possible."
"It isn’t simply some random guy who just, for whatever reason, decided to endorse these views. This is the result of a very corrosive ideology that is unfortunately more apparent within our political discourse."
Later in the statement, Fernandez says they "hope the Republican Party chooses to purge itself of the Christopher Hodgman’s of the world, just as our chapter has."
Fernandez said it was his goal as president this year to create a different kind of college Republican chapter.
“I didn’t want to be simply be some political organization that automatically supports whatever the party does," he reiterated in his statement. "I really just intended it to be a vehicle for fostering good discussion."
Fernandez also noted that he came from a family of immigrants, and that it was fitting a first generation Hispanic student replaced Hodgman as president.
The University of Rochester also released a statement saying it has “made clear its commitment to diversity, inclusion, and respect.”