Conservativism in college

It appears as though some conservatives are moving away from the Horowitz model of attempting to silence liberals in universities and colleges and towards a more constuctive engagement with the concepts of their ideology. CU-Colorado Springs appears to be on the forefront of this movement, 

 Acknowledging that 20 years and millions of dollars spent loudly and bitterly attacking the liberal leanings of American campuses have failed to make much of a dent in the way undergraduates are educated, some conservatives have decided to try a new strategy.

They are finding like-minded tenured professors and helping them establish academic beachheads for their ideas.

These initiatives, like the Program in Western Civilization and American Institutions at the University of Texas, Austin, or a project at the University of Colorado here in Colorado Springs, to publish a book of classic texts, are mostly financed by conservative organizations and donors, run by conservative professors. But they have a decidedly nonpartisan and nonideological face.

Their goal is to restore what conservative and other critics see as leading casualties of the campus culture wars of the 1980s and ’90s: the teaching of Western culture and a triumphal interpretation of American history.

The NY Times article continues, 

 Colorado Springs used its $50,000 grant to publish “A Free Society and Its Challenges,” a collection of classic writings including Plato’s “Apology” and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter From a Birmingham Jail.” Every incoming freshman last fall and this fall was assigned readings from it.

Amid the get-to-know-one-another barbecues and field trips to Pike’s Peak during orientation last month, the college organized freshman seminars devoted to the readings.

At first some faculty members were suspicious of where the idea and financing had come from, said Robert Sackett, a history professor who publicly voiced his concern. Yet he added, whatever the back story, who could object to teaching Dr. King or Plato?

“An assignment that I initially had some doubts about has turned out better than I expected,” said Mr. Sackett, who points out that he is not a conservative. “I could see using it again.”

As a good liberal I'm always up for honest discussion and debate of ideas. I'm glad that some conservatives have turned away from a destructive model and embraced this new constructive model. Frankly, the CU-Colorado Springs program sounds pretty interesting and would be a course I would have taken in a heartbeat.