September/October 1994 Issue

Campus Conservatives

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Not all of the activism taking place on college campuses is from the left. Small but well-funded right-wing political actions are bobbing up in the wake of progressive activity. A few examples:

  • Across the country, conservative groups are challenging the use of student fees to fund progressive campus organizations. Back in 1979, a student suit against Rutgers resulted in reduced funding for the Public Interest Research Group (PIRG). Since then, similar attacks on the funding of progressive student groups have occurred on campuses from New York to California. In several states, the battle has moved to the legislature: In 1993, for example, a complete ban on student groups with an ideological agenda was beaten in the New Jersey legislature by only one vote.

    One right-wing paper published a poster of Bart Simpson shooting a slingshot with the words “Back off, Faggot” below.

  • Right-wing campus publications (many patterned after the infamous Dartmouth Review) have fought to roll back past progressive victories. Examples listed in a report by the University Conversion Project include: The Stanford Review promoting a movement to bring back the university’s Indian mascot, replaced in 1984 by the cardinal; the University of Iowa’s Campus Review publishing a poster of Bart Simpson shooting a slingshot with the words “Back Off, Faggot” below; Penn State’s The Lionhearted printing a cartoon of a bikini-clad body with the face of a female student who’d condemned misogyny in the school’s mainstream paper; the Dartmouth Review attempting to have the school’s sole gay studies course canceled; and staffers at MIT’s conservative journal Counterpoint trying to convince businesses to stop advertising in the school’s progressive paper. About 50 prominent right-wing campus publications are affiliated with the Madison Center for Educational Affairs, which, in turn, is supported by grants from corporations and conservative foundations. Last fiscal year, the Madison Center contributed $84,000 to network papers for operating costs alone.
  • In April, anti-PC student activists from around the country went to Harvard to ratify the Cambridge Declaration, a document attacking multiculturalism, affirmative action, and diversity seminars. Supporters described the event as the conservative equivalent of the 1962 launch of Students for a Democratic Society in Port Huron, Mich.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

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