Incoming Freshman Says Marquette University Threatened Her Admission Over Pro-Trump Video

Brittany M. Hughes | July 9, 2020
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A young women recently accepted to Marquette University, a Catholic Jesuit university in Wisconsin, now says the school interrogated her and threatened to pull her admission over a video she posted to her TikTok account in which she expressed support for President Donald Trump.

Samantha Pfefferle, who goes by “conservativegirl0” on TikTok, posted the seconds-long clip to her page, which shows her dancing along to the lyrics, “He’s mad, she’s’ mad, big sad, haha, don’t care, stay mad,” along with the captions, “When the libs find their way to your page,” and “When people see that I support Trump.” In the background hangs a sign that reads “Marquette University 2024.”

Pfefferle said that soon after she posted the video, she was contacted by Brian Troyer, Marquette's dean of undergraduate admissions, who implied that she may no longer be a student at Marquette because of her social media posts.

“[He] had the heart to tell me I wasn’t a student,” Pfefferle said. “This means that my classification is still in limbo and is currently being decided by the administration. I have been accepted, I paid for my housing, I have my roommates, I even have a complete class schedule. If that doesn’t make me a student, what does?”

Pfefferle added that school administrators then set up a Zoom meeting where they grilled her with questions, including over her stance on “Dreamers.”

“They also asked me hypothetical questions regarding Dreamers,” Pfefferle said. “How would I respond if a Dreamer who lived down the hall from me came up to me and told me she didn’t feel safe or comfortable with my views and me being on campus? They also asked me if they thought there was anything I could do to improve my image on campus. They proceeded to ask if I was comfortable with the reputation I have established for myself. The assistant dean asked if I put any thought into the response I would be getting from my videos.”

On top of that, Pfefferle said she’s received a slew of angry comments on the video, including death wishes.

A spokesperson for Marquette told Empower Wisconsin, a conservative grassroots organization, that while the school hadn’t rescinded Pfefferle’s admission, “the admissions team did recently have a conversation with incoming freshman Samantha Pfefferle about statements made on her social media accounts.”

Pfefferle has reportedly been vocal about her opposition to illegal immigration in posts to her social media accounts.

In 2018, Marquette University fired a conservative professor for criticizing a liberal colleague who had refused to let a student disagree with gay marriage in the classroom.

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