Academic Silencing – Who’s Behind the Attacks?

Who's Behind the Attacks?

One of the main players has been the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA). Oganized by Lynne Cheney, its goal is to quash the “obsession with diversity” and the “liberal bias” in education. ACTA is financed by rightwing foundations such as Castle Rock (Coors), Scaife, Olin and Bradley, and allied with powerful neoconservative groups such as the Federalist Society, American Enterprise Institute, Cato Institute, and National Association of Scholars. ACTA furthers its agenda by enlisting trustees (regents), alumni, governors and legislators to bring political and financial pressure on universities.

Colorado is an ACTA stronghold: CU President Hank Brown: was a co-founder and a former CU-Boulder philosophy department chair is now ACTA’s national Chairman. Regent Tom Lucero is a strong supporter, and former Gov. Bill Owens, a leader of ACTA’s Governors Project, hosted an ACTA conference for Colorado trustees.

ACTA published How Many Ward Churchills? in May 2006 to coincide with the release of CU’s Investigative Report. It concludes: "Ward Churchill is everywhere." Everywhere? ACTA points to departments and courses focusing on "race, class, gender, sexuality, . . . globalization, capitalism, . . . and the destruction of the environment."

RESOURCES

For analyses about the attacks on Ward Churchill, click here.

To find out about recent cases across the country, visit:

National Project to Defend Dissent & Critical Thinking

Teachers for a Democratic Society
 

Academic freedom is supposed to be protected by the American Association
of University Professors, which was created to counter pressure from trustees and
corporate interests, but the AAUP is known for its thundering silence in the face of McCarthyism as well as the current attacks on scholars like Ward Churchill.

The attack dogs of the right are best represented by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, organized by Lynne Cheney , and David Horowitz’s "Freedom Center."

As you’ll see, the right has specialized in co-opting the language of the struggles for freedom, democracy and equality. To understand the funding network behind such groups, read Dean Alan Jones’ Connecting the Dots.