Nicole Been, ‘17
In a sea of students with Bernie Sanders pins adorning their Fjallraven backpacks and Hillary Clinton stickers smoothed to the surface of their laptops floats Nicole Been, a platinum-blonde beacon in a sea of concentrated liberalism. Nicole is a typical adolescent and college student in many ways: she’s a Secondary Education major, works part-time at a retail job, and ran track in high school. However, she is unique at DePaul. While political activism is typical of the average college student, Been’s focus – namely, her conservatism, has been at the focus of multiple entities on campus, including the “DePaul Class of 2019” Facebook page. Amidst her busy life as Chairwoman of DePaul College Republicans and participating in two other student organizations, Her Campus caught up with Nicole and took a look at where her passions and hobbies have led her, and her time being a conservative activist at DePaul University.
Hey Nicole, great to meet you! So, you were called to interview here today about your increasingly prevalent presence on campus as the main Chairwoman of DePaul College Republicans. But first, let’s start with the basics:
What’s your favorite food?
Oh my god, probably Mexican Food. Allende is my all-time favorite, like favorite restaurant ever.
Book?
The Great Gatsby
Place on Campus? This one’s hard.
Actually, I do have a favorite place. Honestly I love the upstairs Stu: that Demon Den. We [DePaul College Republicans] will sit up there and have primary watching parties or debate watching parties, and it’s just a good area to get together with friends. There’s food everywhere. So yeah, probably the Demon Den; that’s where we gather after meetings and hang out.
Nicole with her friends on the L.
Speaking of DePaul College Republicans, I know that you’re the head of that organization. What responsibilities does that entail?
I am the chairwoman. It includes just getting students internships and on national and local campaigns. We have meetings, you know, we have fun events where we get to know each other and create an environment where people can exercise a freedom of speech. If they’re having trouble with a professor, they can voice their opinion. We’re “no judgment”, and just making sure that we are getting the message out on campus, because I don’t think they’re nearly as exposed as they should be compared to, like, other ideas.
What’s the biggest challenge about being the leader of a political organization?
I think it’s one thing to be a leader of a political organization, but it’s another to be the leader of a conservative organization, because pretty much like everyone disagrees with me. Everyone is, you know, against you. Whether people like it or not, we have a right to support who we want and the way we want and…having to explain yourself constantly really sucks. You just feel like you go into class and people are like “Oh, that’s the person who did ‘The Chalkening’”, or “That’s the person who brought that controversial (but not really) person to campus”. Also, in the city, you have to be careful. For example, with “The Chalkening”, someone in our organization was [like] threatened to get beat up.”
Been at a “Big Government Sucks” event: an organization that promotes free markets and limited government.
Okay, well, are there certain responsibilities or any weirdness that comes along with being the president, and a female, of DePaul College Republicans? Do you feel like people are like “Why are you a republican; you’re a woman”?
Yeah, that happens a lot. People will say things like “Don’t you care about women’s reproductive rights?” And one thing about Republicans is that we see everyone as a grey blob; we don’t look at factors like skin color, gender, religion, sexual orientation. Obviously economic status is sometimes like, more people need help than others, but like things that you can’t necessarily change because that’s the way you born, we don’t feel like you should be looked at any differently. So that’s why we sort of consider people like grey blobs. Just because you’re a woman, doesn’t mean you can’t be just as successful as a guy.
So, you don’t feel like there’s any discrimination against you as a female besides in the form of people questioning you about your Republicanism?
I don’t think so. Politics is a very male-dominated field, and yeah, sometimes I feel like they will maybe puff up their chests and talk down to me, but I just think it’s important for women who want to be in politics to not back down. There’s a little bit of that, but it’s not anything that I’m going to throw a fit about. It’s more like…they’ll puff their chests and talk down, but then 5 minutes later we’ll be having a beer, having fun.
Do you all, as a club, endorse one candidate?
We can’t until there’s a nominee. We can’t endorse or give any lack of support to any candidate within any republican candidate. Once there’s a nominee, then we can express support!
Who do you support, and why is their platform meaningful to you?
Myself personally, I support and work for Donald Trump. I like him [because] the biggest issues in the country right now are foreign relations, immigration is big…and fighting radicalism, and I feel like Donald Trump has the strongest and most effective message to get across to the American people as to how he’s going to do that.
One thing that I notice with a lot of instances that recently happened on campus is his non-negotiable attitude, which I like. He’s not gonna put up with like this PC-culture anymore, which I think is destroying college campuses. It’s one thing to have your opinion, but if you’re gonna shut down other opinions, that are in no way, shape, or form racist or homophobic, or whatever, words that I don’t even know the meaning of anymore…I feel like they’re made up on the weekly…I just feel like he’s someone who will put an end to that. We need to face the challenges in the country that actually do exist, not just creating. For example, I mean, there’s nothing racist about saying that cop lives matter, at all.
I see where you’re coming from. That whole debate is coming up.
Ready for it!
Your group was highlighted by what many DePaul students know as “The Challenging”: an act of activism in which you protested the oppression of freedom of speech and expressed your hope for Trump’s campaign, and the end of Bernie Sanders. After the DePaul College Republicans did “The Chalkening”, a representative from DePaul’s administration responded on the “Class of 2019” Facebook page and the post essentially read that we erased the chalk because “some among the crew considered the messages inflammatory”. Do you think the administration would have come down as hard if “The Chalkenings” had been things like “R.I.P Trump’s Campaign” or “Black Lives Matter”?
Yeah. I don’t think it would have been as big of a deal because number one, we, (the Republicans on campus) wouldn’t have made a big deal about it because it happens all the time. We see posters, we see socialist people come here and hand out flyers about abortion, and we never say anything because it’s like: Number One, we have jobs and like other, better things to do besides, like, cause a ruckus at the university.
Besides, I just think that every college just has a more liberal agenda and it appeals to them more because it’s the easy way to please the biggest amount of people. I think that a lot of their motives are driven by money and some college students are naïve to that. Like, if I leave because this place pisses me off, that’s better [to them] than 50 people leaving because someone wrote Trump 2016.
So, besides DePaul College Republicans, what are you involved with on-campus? What makes those activities meaningful to you?
Everything that I’m involved in is still political, but I’m involved in Students Supporting Israel, Young Americans for Freedom, which is like nonpartisan and conservative.
What’s your advice for freshman that might be coming to DePaul with conservative values, or people already here who are struggling to find a community in a liberal college climate?
I mean, I would say come to our meetings! They’re Mondays at 6:30. And if you can’t make it to those then feel free to reach out to me on Facebook and I would say that the organization is probably ¾ women and ¼ men that are like, actively coming to things. Just like, be yourself, don’t be afraid to voice your opinion because chances are, there’s someone in the room who probably feels the same exact way. They’re just…scared or in the same position as you and don’t want to be ridiculed. Honestly, nothing’s gonna happen to you – you might get called some bad names, or some people might not want to be your friend, but like are they really your friend if they’re gonna [do that]. I mean, I have plenty of friends that are democratic or liberal, like there’s a community. It’s more of like, politically engaged and politically apathetic; that’s the bigger conflict right now rather than the politically engaged people.