Well, at least they admit they're trying to control the flow of information

[trinityvixen]

I think I've seen this in a movie somewhere before...

Ideas for the new strategy began percolating in 2005 when the Philanthropy Roundtable, an association of foundation officials and big donors, met and shared their complaints about higher education. A few months earlier, Mr. Piereson wrote an article in the roundtable’s magazine warning donors not to endow university programs or faculty chairs. “Once the endowment check is written, the donor loses all control over the program he has funded,” he advised.

Conservatives have begun to realize, said Peter Wood, the executive director of the scholars’ association, that their contributions to colleges and universities frequently pay for what they see as left-leaning academic programs that run counter to their world views.

Instead of making no-strings-attached donations, he said, conservatives started asking “ought there not be some way that we could reach the donors and convince them that their donations to higher education could be more wisely spent?”

"Gee, University of Leftism, you sure do have a nice curriculum here. It would be a shame if anything were to...happen to it. You catch my meaning? What's say you leave a door open two nights a week so my friend here, "AMERICA: FUCK YEAH" can come in and educate some of your students? What do you say? We're prepared to donate some resources to help you come to the right decision. It would sadden us greatly if we couldn't come to some understanding on this. I would hate to have to throw my support to that other University across the street. I like you, kid. I don't want to have to do that."

Comments

[edgehopper.livejournal.com]

Yes, people are obligated to fund speech they disagree with. If not, they're fascists controlling the free flow of information...

Huh?

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

They're not obligated to fund anything. If they want to fund an organization that will toady up to their ideology, they should write all their checks courtesy of the Discovery Institute. The idea of our university system is that we are there to educate, not indoctrinate.

There's also something fundamentally, ironically backward about this desire to encourage less critical examinations of American history and Western thought. If Western thought has dominated the world, clearly it is strong enough to survive a few academic pokes. Saying it needs protection is tantamount to admitting that it is flawed and weak, something which most of these gosh-durn librul universities would find ridiculous as they are all, despite their offering of gender and minority studies classes, based upon.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

This is sort of like donating priceless but hideous art to an institution and requiring that they display it. A while ago, somebody donated hideous, frightening clown paintings to the Children's Hospital of Boston, requiring that it be displayed in the lobby. They ended up building a seperate alcove for the art so no one would see it.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Except the hideous clown paintings here are going to be seen. And heard. Or else.