National Association of Scholars, Inc.
Princeton, NJ 08540
The National Association of Scholars (NAS), a network of conservative university professors dedicated to combating perceived "liberal bias" on college campuses, received $125,000 from the Olin Foundation in 1994; Bradley granted $378,000 between 1990 and 1992 and authorized a two-year, $150,000 grant in 1994; the Scaife Foundations have contributed more than $400,000 in recent years; and the Adolph Coors, J.M. and Smith Richardson foundations are also regular contributors.
Founded in 1985 "..to unite right-wing faculty against 'politically correct' multicultural education and affirmative action policies." Played a key role in the California anti-affirmative action referendum. Backed by the Olin, Bradley, Sarah Scaife, Coors and Smith Richardson foundations, among others, receiving a combined total in excess of $348,000 from these foundations alone in 1990-91.
First gained notoriety in 1990 at the University of Texas, as Austin, where NAS faculty succeeded in blocking the inclusion in an English course of civil rights readings that had been proposed in response to increasing racial and sexual harassment on campus. During the controversy, the faculty group also encouraged a right-wing student group to lead an ultimately successful campaign to defund the unversity's Chicano newspaper.
More recently, the NAS released an update of a 1994 report urging the University of Massachusetts system to abandon its goal of expanding student of color enrollment to 20% of the first-year class and to end a program that encourages the hiring of women and people of color.
In its present incarnation (1997), the National Association of Scholars, founded by Herbert London and Steven Balch, presents itself as the vehicle for [right wing] "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.
...a network of conservative academics that receives over $100,000 a year from each of the Bradley, Olin and Richardson foundations. Members of the NAS advisory board include Jeane Kirkpatrick,Irving Kristol and Chester Finn of Hudson and Edison Project.
Colorado Springs Independent
April 30, 2001
NAS at work
http://www.csindy.com/csindy/2001-05-24/news2.html
The NAS, hired by a Republican bureaucrat and given a $25,000 contract to evaluate Colorado teacher education programs, unsurprisingly recommended closing almost half of them for having a liberal bias.
