New Web Site Offers Conservative Students a Philosophical Home and an Intellectual Arsenal

Chronicle of Higher Education
By SARA HEBEL
September 14, 2005

Worried that conservative points of view are not being adequately presented in college classrooms, officials at a Minnesota think tank unveiled a Web site on Tuesday that aims to expose students to more ideas from the political right and to bolster their presence in campus debates.

The Center of the American Experiment, a nonprofit Minneapolis-based group devoted to conservative and free-market ideas, started the site, Intellectual Takeout, as part of a broader campaign to help conservative college students in Minnesota.

Over the past two years, the center has helped such students to arrange campus speakers who disagree with liberal viewpoints and to find constructive ways to approach professors whom the students believe have inappropriately injected personal politics into classroom discussions.

The center's officials said they view the new Web site as an alternate approach to the academic bill of rights, proposed legislation that has recently been debated in the U.S. Congress and in several state legislatures. David Horowitz, president of the Center for the Study of Popular Culture, wrote the bill in an attempt to force institutions to do more to protect the rights of college students and to promote intellectual diversity on campuses. Although the wording of the bill is viewpoint-neutral, its advocates have backed it mostly in the belief that college students with conservative beliefs are often treated unfairly.

Annette Meeks, chief executive officer of the Center of the American Experiment, said her group did not take a position on the academic bill of rights. The tactic of trying to legislate intellectual diversity "is just not our style," she said. "We'd rather put out ideas in the marketplace."

Speaking of Intellectual Takeout, she added, "I hope this stimulates debate."

The new Web site includes sections that provide students with access to discussions and overviews of conservative positions on many topics, including cultural studies, economics, and environmental studies.

One portion, labeled "Ideas to Go," provides quick summaries of how "the right" and "the left" view hot topics, such as global warming and debates over raising the minimum wage. Another, titled "Ask the Professor," lets visitors ask questions they feel their own professors may not have adequately answered. The center is lining up its own policy experts, as well as some professors, to field the inquiries. The site also has links to news items, event listings, and job postings.