College Station, TX

olsen was assured a place on this list when YAF announced in August that the chapter he runs at Texas A&M was named Chapter of the Year, quite an accomplishment considering that YAF is on 2,000 campuses nationwide. “The tradition is that A&M is for conservatives and farmers while the University of Texas is for enlightened liberals. But student government and administrators here are shifting far left. It’s a big deal,” Olsen said. An example is the debate over removing the statue of A&M founder Lawrence Sullivan Ross, who fought for the Confederacy. “We haven’t yet taken a side,” he said of his YAF chapter. “Slavery was repugnant, but we believe in moral redemption, and Sullivan did a lot for African Americans when he was governor of Texas. We’re just trying to promote thoughtful discussion. But the left’s attitude is that if you disagree with them and want to keep the statue, you’re