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SECTORSInternal LinksProfiles:
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CONSERVATIVE PHILANTHROPYAcademic Change OrganizationsFrom a report by NCRPThe 12 foundations directed a sizable pool of grant money to academic change organizations and networks in a highly sophisticated and aggressive effort to reverse the opening of American higher education to nontraditional scholarship and constituencies. Nearly $8 (1992-1994) million was invested in faculty networks, conservative accrediting institutions, student conservative publications and other organizations. The Intercollegiate Studies Institute, a 44-year-old organization dedicated to free markets, limited goverment, individual liberty, personal responsibility, and "cultural norms" consistent with a free society, was a top grantee. ISI now claims over 60,000 members and maintains an active presence on campuses by organizing forty conferences a year and more than 300 lectures. The Institute produced several publications including Campus, which attacks progressive trends in higher education, the Common Sense Guide to American Colleges, and an ISI leadership guide for conservative student activists. Two other heavily funded organizations, the National Association of Scholars (NAS) and the Madison Center for Educational Affairs (MCEA), have also been vigorous participants in the broader conservative effort to restructure the academy by supporting conservative faculty and student activities while simultaneously attacking liberal university trends and progressive scholarship. NAS evolved out of an organization called the Coalition for Campus Democracy, itself formed under the auspices of the Institute for Educational Affairs and the ultra-conservative Committee for a Free-World. The Coalition for Campus Democracy was started in 1982 by Stephen Balch, with funding supplied by conservative foundations. According to a report issued by the Center for Campus Organizing, R. Randolph Richardson, of the Smith Richardson Foundation, circulated a confidential memo in 1984 that discussed two academic change strategies: "deterrence activism" and "high ground articulation." Richardson wrote that deterrence activism "exists purely in response to the left-wing agenda. It is not very interesting ... and it is the kind of activism sponsored heretofore. At best it is a form of cheerleading that can focus some attention on stirring media events." Richardson thus advocated the "high ground" approach by supporting efforts to develop a critique of left-wing trends and articulating the need for academic standards and intellectual rigor through new networks, student journalism projects, and the like. In its present incarnation, the National Association of Scholars, founded by Herbert London and Steven Balch, presents itself as the vehicle for just such "intellectual renewal" and "academic standards." Balch and London were the co-authors of "The Tenured Left," published by Commentary magazine in 1986. With approximately 3,000 members, state and campus chapters and disciplinary caucuses, the NAS serves multiple functions. It sponsors or convenes conferences, publishes Academic Questions, and engages in wide-ranging political activities that include mobilizing its membership to sound the alarm over the alleged left-wing academic bias and lobbying public officials over education policy issues. The Madison Center for Educational Affairs, created in 1991 by the merger of the Institute for Educational Affairs and the Madison Center, has served as a funding intermediary and technical assistance provider. Through its Student Journalism Project, MCEA had awarded grants annually totaling $200,000 (1992-1994) to support approximately 70 conservative college student publications. The Center also conducts conferences, sponsors summer internships for students, and funds book projects and other research. In its funding role, MCEA continues the founding mission of the Institute for Educational Affairs, founded in 1978 with the assistance of William Simon ([former] President of the Olin Foundation) and To defend America's 200 year old experiment in self-governance and economic freedom from a self-conscious cultural establishment eager to condemn the principles, aspirations, and loyalties of most Americans... Part of the Institute's own uniqueness involves its very constitution: we brought together business leaders and scholars... We did so because one of our explicit goals was to demonstrate that there exists a natural harmony among enlightened philanthropy and enlightened scholarship."
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OTHER LINKSAcademic Sector Program Areas
Law and Economics Funding
Public Policy Training
Targeting the Academy
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