AUBURN, Ala. (EETV) – On Sept. 17, Jacob Roose, president of Turning Point USA at Auburn University, spoke about how the organization is coping with the recent death of its co-founder, Charlie Kirk. Kirk was assassinated on Sept. 10 during an event at Utah Valley University. Roose shared insight into the impact of Kirk’s death and how TPUSA has responded in the days since.
Roose said, “We as a chapter have seen enormous growth over the past week or so. And it’s unfortunate that we are growing this much under these circumstances, but Charlie, we believe, would want us to use this opportunity to grow and be able to share the words and values that he founded Turning Point USA on.”
Turning Point USA was co-founded by Charlie Kirk and Bill Montgomery in 2012 as a non-profit organization that advocates for conservative politics on high school and college campuses.
Roose said, “[…] that’s our number one goal here at Turning Point USA at Auburn University: to be able to share what he believed in and share what our organization believes in as a whole, and that’s pretty much open dialogue within our community, because once he said it himself, and I’ve known from a very young age, once we stop talking as a country, that’s when violence and civil war happens.”
Auburn University’s TPUSA chapter is optimistic and has plans to use recent events to continue spreading positivity and fostering discussion, reaching people across college campuses across the country.
Roose said that over the past year and a half or so, they’ve tried to gear and orient themselves to grow as a chapter.
Roose also gave little insight into some things they’ve faced regarding previous leadership roles and their ways of dealing with where the chapter was heading, saying, “We had a little bit of trouble early last fall with how the chapter was doing, and then we had a little bit of a leadership change, but then I became president, and we really, really tried to pivot and become one of the biggest chapters in the country.”
Roose later went on to talk about the success of TPUSA and how he plans on taking on the leadership role to make the chapter at Auburn University the best it can be.
“We won the Turning Point USA college chapter of the year award two years ago, right before I took over at the time as VP, and then later became president. And we just want to get back to that status as being the best chapter in the country and be the name on everybody’s lips out at our national headquarters in Phoenix,” said Roose.
He plans to bring a more subtle and competitive approach to things as well. Roose feels that it gives the chapter’s personality and shows the competitive nature within the Southeastern Conference chapters as a collective group.
Roose said, “[…] And we saw that the University of Georgia earned that award last year, and so we’re trying to take that back, keep it here in Auburn. We like to poke a lot of friendly competition with our friends in the SEC as well. We’re very good friends with the University of Alabama chapter, too, and we really want to try to outgrow each other and try to be better. We want to better each other through friendly competition.”
For more information, you can reach TPUSA at Auburn University on their Instagram page @tpusa_auburn.
