The College Fix

A group of current and former conservative students at Yale University are trying to do something to counteract the liberal political bias on campus. They’ve just leased a large mansion on the edge of campus, where they hope to host lectures and special events that will expose Yale students to conservative ideas.

As The New York Times reports:

Thanks to $500,000 from a single, unnamed donor, the group will soon move into the William H. Taft Mansion — with a two-year lease and an option to buy — and attempt the transformation from a local undergraduate venture into a conservative policy institute with a presence on the national political landscape.

Mr. Buckley wrote prolifically, founded The National Review, hosted “Firing Line” and even ran for mayor of New York, but to some he remains first and foremost the author of “God and Man at Yale,” a call for the restoration of what he saw as traditional values at his alma mater. That call resonated with Lauren Noble, a member of the class of 2011 and the group’s executive director. “If you look at the political affiliations of the Yale faculty,” she said, “if you look at the slant of the courses being taught, if you look at the speakers who are otherwise being invited to campus, all of that leans to the left.”

So while she was a senior, she and some classmates began inviting conservative speakers to campus. “It’s not as if we’re trying to convert liberal students to a conservative viewpoint,” she said. “But at least if they’ve heard a legitimate conservative viewpoint they won’t regard it as a foreign language.”

This is an exciting program that has the potential to bring much-needed intellectual diversity to New Haven. I wish such a  program had existed while I was a student there.

You can learn more about the William F. Buckley program at Yale, including how you can donate to their cause, right here: www.buckleyprogram.com

Nathan Harden is editor of The College Fix and author of the book SEX & GOD AT YALE: Porn, Political Correctness, and a Good Education Gone Bad.

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