Illiberal education
STUDENTS HAVE returned to campus, and conservatives claim these impressionable learners are entering a great leftist stronghold where doctrinaire liberalism and overweening political correctness go uncontested.
But are students really under siege from liberalism? Or is "liberal bias" on campus the same as "liberal bias" in the media -- a weapon of self-promotion that falsely portrays conservatives as victims of leftist orthodoxy?
A look at campuses today reveals we've been duped. Increasingly, it is the conservative movement that sets the agenda.
Over 30 years, the right has built a powerful campus machine. A dozen right-wing institutions now spend $38 million annually pushing their agenda to students. Conservative foundations channel tens of millions more for academic programs. These efforts buff an intellectual sheen over conservative ideology, lure students into the fold, and create new media stars -- the Ann Coulters whose invective now dominates grown-up airwaves.
The largest groups -- Young America's Foundation, Intercollegiate Studies Institute, and Leadership Institute -- spent roughly $25 million on campuses last year. YAF subsidized 200 campus lectures by celebrity right-wing speakers. Intercollegiate Studies Institute spent $1 million supporting 80 campus publications and $9 million publishing periodicals. The Leadership Institute, run by Reagan aide Morton Blackwell (recently caught handing out Band-Aids mocking John Kerry's military service), boasts a record 3,562 graduates from trainings last year.
Aided by this infrastructure, young conservatives have become adept self-promoters. One example of their hijinks occurred last year, when they held "affirmative action bake sales"; the price of a brownie was set by a student's race and gender. Nervous school authorities shut down bake sales after students took offense -- precisely the reaction organizers sought. The bake sales, skillfully promoted, generated substantial media.
No comparable infrastructure exists for progressives. While today's students remain somewhat more progressive than adults overall, progressive efforts are not as organized or well funded as efforts on the right.
National environmental and civil rights groups have built solid campus identities. But progressive campus efforts wax and wane, and students are separated into various issue "silos." There is little unity -- and insufficient effort to counter the conservative focus on communicating ideas.
Some argue the left doesn't need organizations like YAF to bolster campus progressives because universities themselves perform that function.
But the reality is otherwise. Look at other examples of conservative upstarts taking on the supposedly liberal establishment: Fox News as rival to CNN; the Heritage Foundation and Brookings; Rush Limbaugh and NPR, etc. In fact, while the new right-wing institutions are steadfastly extreme, older establishment institutions, far from liberal beacons, often strive for balance or are themselves increasingly conservative.
Universities are no exception. With administrators dependent on corporate largesse to fund research and buildings, they often behave like congressmen in swing districts -- pleasing benefactors and never swaying far from the center.
Undoubtedly, liberals occupy more professorships, but this says little about political discrimination. Robert Frost wrote, "A liberal is a man too broadminded to take his own side in a quarrel."
Instead of relaxing under the myth that liberal values rule our campuses, progressive students should assert themselves, communicating what they stand for with a compelling message. But earnest students can't do this alone. A national effort to work with students on the substance, intellectual foundation, and communication of progressive ideas is needed.
Conservatives have understood that you cannot secure a lasting movement without resources to keep it alive over generations. Progressives say they understand that, too. The question is whether they make it a priority.
Ben Hubbard is campus programs director and David Halperin is special adviser at the Center for American Progress.
