The University of Florida is ceasing to recognize a group of college Republicans as such over antisemitic comments.
University officials said during the weekend that they were informed by the Florida Federation of College Republicans of the disbanding of the Gainesville campus' chapter, The Associated Press noted.
Its members, it added, "engaged in a pattern of conduct that violated its rules and values, including a recent antisemitic gesture."
It is the second time in a month that a Florida university takes steps against college Republicans over such behavior.
Earlier in March, the Miami Herald reported of leaked WhatsApp messages showing that a group chat created by the secretary of the Miami-Dade County Republican Party for conservative students quickly filled with racist slurs, violent rhetoric and extremist references.
The chat, which included student leaders linked to Republican organizations at Florida International University, is now part of an ongoing criminal investigation, according to the university.
The conversations, which took place over roughly three weeks last fall, included the repeated use of racial and antisemitic slurs, derogatory language about women and discussions referencing Adolf Hitler and white supremacist ideology. According to the Herald, variations of the n-word appeared more than 400 times in the chat logs.
One participant, William Bejerano, posted a message describing multiple violent acts against Black people, including "crucifying, beheading and dissecting people." Another participant, Dariel Gonzalez, then the College Republicans recruitment chairman, advises in another passage to "avoid the coloreds like the plague," and said he used the term "colored" because "I was told we cant say black anymore."
The chat also included Ian Valdes, president of FIU's Turning Point USA chapter. At one point he changed the chat's name to "Gooning in Agartha," referencing a mythical underground civilization associated with white supremacist mythology. Gonzalez described Agartha in the chat as "Nazi heaven sort of," while Valdes called it "esoteric nazism essentially."
Abel Carvajal, the Miami-Dade GOP secretary who created the chat, said he had not closely followed the messages until contacted by the newspaper. "It's been five months since this was sent and this is the first time I've seen this message," he said. Carvajal acknowledged responsibility for starting the group but said he would have removed participants had he seen the violent content earlier.
Miami-Dade Republican Party chairman Kevin Cooper said anyone involved should resign, calling the statements "shocking and appalling."
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