This week, young Liberal students at Sydney's most prestigious university were forced to hire extra security to monitor their orientation day activities, after fears of violent altercations.

The Sydney University Liberal Club, a prominent recruiting ground for future Liberal operatives, is riven by a factional war so toxic that the students' union dissolved the club's entire membership in May.

The University of Sydney Union also forced the club to hire, and pay for, an extra security guard to oversee its orientation day stall on Wednesday.

USU president Michael Rees said he was aware the club's leadership was "hotly contested" and a security guard was warranted to ensure that "everyone who wanted to sign up to the club ... felt comfortable in doing so".

No argy-bargy was forthcoming, but young factional wannabes were livid at alleged "stacking" by moderate Liberals, who are trying to claw back control of the prized club from conservatives.

Vying for the presidency are Dom Bondar, assistant editor of conservative journal Quadrant, and Josh Crawford, godson of the moderate Liberal powerbroker Michael Photios​.

Mr Crawford's aunt Jane Cusack, sister of NSW MLC Catherine Cusack, was spotted signing up to the undergraduate club, along with several other Liberals who have long left the university.

One young operative sent photographs from the stall to a prominent News Corp columnist, who duly tweeted the pictures and declared the club was "under attack from the Photios-Left faction".

An insider told Fairfax Media that a left-wing takeover of the club would be "a very seismic occurrence" and would "fundamentally shake the dynamic of the NSW Liberal Party".

The SULC is seen as key to controlling the NSW Young Liberal movement and thereby exerting influence within the party proper, including preselections, staffers and elections to the executive.

As such, the club is all too familiar with factional brawling. In 2009, police were called to a meeting amid brawling and claims that former NSW MLC Marie Ficarra​ made a "throat slitting" gesture, which she denied.

And at a 2012 SULC dinner, guest speaker Alan Jones infamously remarked that then prime minister Julia Gillard's father had "died of shame".

Earlier this month, young Liberals hired private security guards to bounce factional enemies from a meeting in Tasmania. Senator Eric Abetz was so appalled he declined to speak at the conference dinner.