The Solution to Media/Academic Censorship: Cancel the Cancellors!

EDITORIAL: This is a GREAT idea!


Alumni groups leverage donations against universities crimping free speech

SOURCE: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/alumni-groups-leverage-donations-against-universities-crimping-free-speech/ar-AARu85k?ocid=msedgntp

12/5/21

Groups of alumni from various colleges and universities around the country are organizing efforts to withhold donations from their alma maters in a bid to push the institutions to recommit themselves to free speech principles.

The Jefferson Council is among those groups and was founded last year following continued attempts at the University of Virginia to cancel its founder, Thomas Jefferson, as well as a shift in the institution toward ideological uniformity.

James Bacon, a 1975 graduate of the University of Virginia and a founding member of the council, told the Washington Examiner that the group’s goal is to work through the system that is in place to “preserve the legacy of Thomas Jefferson” as well as to push the university to embrace intellectual diversity.

But the council, Bacon said, doesn’t feel restricted to that approach and has discussed using the power of the purse to push administrators to embrace a more free speech-friendly and intellectually diverse environment that doesn’t erase the university’s founder and the author of the Declaration of Independence.

PROTESTERS BLOCK INTERSECTION AT ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY OVER CONSERVATIVE SPEAKER

“We began talking early on” about using “our donations as leverage. That’s the one thing that these administrators will pay attention to,” Bacon said. “A president’s chief job is fundraising, and they’re rewarded and compensated to some degree on their ability to raise money for the university.”

Bacon said that while the Jefferson Council has yet to call for alumni to cease donating to the school, other alumni free speech groups have, including at another Virginia school: Washington and Lee University.

“If we start pulling our donations, maybe we can exert some pressure,” Bacon said, adding that he suspected the majority of the alumni associated with the council had ceased donating to the Charlottesville university out of exasperation, not as part of a broader strategy.

The issue of free speech and intellectual diversity on college campuses known to be havens of liberal thought has been a well-documented struggle in recent years, with few institutions exempt from the fight.

Activist students and faculty have pressured conservative students and faculty members into silence, while university administrators have often placed roadblocks to the presentation of ideas contrary to the prevailing liberal current of the campus.

The Jefferson Council is part of the Alumni Free Speech Alliance, which brings together groups at major public and private universities across the country to advocate more effectively for intellectual diversity and freedom of speech.

recent Wall Street Journal article highlighted the work of the five groups associated with the alliance, groups of alumni at Princeton University, Cornell University, and Davidson College, as well as the University of Virginia and Washington and Lee University groups.

But the alliance’s website said that since its launch in October, it has been contacted by alumni from over 100 different institutions of higher education interested in organizing free speech advocacy groups.

“Many such organizations are already being organized, and the Alliance will soon have many more members,” according to the alliance’s website, last updated Friday.

“The Alliance provides a mechanism for the exchange of information among its members on substantive and organizational issues,” the site added. “A priority for the Alliance is to encourage the creation of alumni free speech groups for other colleges and universities, and the Alliance will create tools to help new alumni groups organize.”

Bacon said he recognizes that he and his group face an uphill battle to achieve change at the liberal University of Virginia, especially preserving the recognition of the university’s founder.

“Thomas Jefferson is a hero of mine, and no, he was not perfect,” Bacon said, mentioning that Jefferson owned slaves during his life.

“Do you advance the ball of freedom and equality down the playing field, or do you move it backwards?” Bacon asked. “He moved it forward even though he wasn’t perfect.”

Washington Examiner Videos

Original Author: Jeremiah Poff

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