 | |
| Predecessor | Campus Coalition for Democracy |
|---|---|
| Formation | 1987; 38 years ago (1987) |
| Founder | Stephen Balch |
| Type | 501(c)3 organization |
| 11-2741490 | |
| Headquarters | New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Membership | Approx. 2,600[a] |
President | Peter Wyatt Wood |
Acting Chairman | Keith Whitaker |
| Revenue | $2.97 million[1] (2023) |
| Expenses | $2.74 million[1] (2023) |
| Website | nas |
TheNational Association of Scholars (NAS) is an American501(c)(3)non-profitpolitically conservative education advocacy organization.[2][3] It advocates against multiculturalism, diversity policies, and against courses focused on race and gender issues.[4][5]
Originally called the Campus Coalition for Democracy, the National Association of Scholars was founded in 1987 by Herbert London andStephen Balch[6][7] with the goal of preserving the "Western intellectual heritage".[2] As of 2021[update],Peter Wyatt Wood is the president.[8] The advisory board of the NAS has included several notable conservatives, such asJeane Kirkpatrick, a formerUnited States Ambassador to the United Nations and adviser toRonald Reagan. Chester Finn helped to form the conservative movement's education policies.[5] According to the association, it has affiliates in 46U.S. states, as well as inGuam and Canada.[9]
NAS has received funding frompolitically conservative foundations, including theSarah Scaife Foundation, theJohn M. Olin Foundation, theBradley Foundation, theCastle Rock Foundation, theSmith Richardson Foundation, and theArthur N. Rupe Foundation.[10][11][12]
The NAS engaged theAmerican Association of University Professors over itsdiversity standard, and complained to the secretary of theU.S. Department of Education,Lamar Alexander, who ruled that theMiddle States Association of Colleges and Schools must eliminate it. Academics studying the group have described NAS as "conservative",[13] a "group of reactionary scholars" and "a leading vehicle for the conservative attack on multiculturalism and political correctness."[14]Jacob Weisberg stated in 1991 that NAS is "prone to conflating its admirable ideals with far less compelling political prejudices."[15]
Chapters of the NAS have been involved in a number of campus controversies related to affirmative action and multicultural studies programs. According toPeople for the American Way, NAS faculty at theUniversity of Texas, Austin blocked the inclusion of civil rights readings in an English course; the readings had been proposed to address concerns about racial and sexual harassment on campus.[11] In 1990, the NAS placed an advertisement in theDaily Texan (the University of Texas student newspaper), calling for the rejection of a proposed multiculturalism curriculum at theUniversity of Texas.[16] Simultaneously, the NAS encouraged a successful campaign to defund the university's Chicano newspaper.[11]Time magazine in 1991 called NAS the "faculty opposition to the excesses of multiculturalism" and to "courses about race and gender issues".[4]
In 1990, aDuke University chapter of the NAS was formed by political science professorJames David Barber. The new chapter provoked "a sometimes bitter debate" about the NAS stances on race and gender, and on whether academic freedom should extend to what NAS critics viewed as intolerance.Stanley Fish, chairman of the English department at Duke, wrote that NAS "is widely known to be racist, sexist and homophobic." In an interview with theDurham Morning Herald, Barber called Fish "an embarrassment to this university for his gross insult to this organization". In response to the NAS chapter formation, a larger group of faculty formed "Duke Faculty for Academic Tolerance".[17]
Also in 1990, theHarvard University community debated the presence of the NAS. Writing in theHarvard Crimson,Martin L. Kilson Jr. acknowledged some "overzealous behavior by supporters of ethnic studies and women studies" but argued that the NAS was an "overkill neoconservative response". In Kilson's view, NAS had succumbed to "anxiety and maybe phobia" of multiculturalism. He asks, "Why shouldn't persons on our campuses go to great lengths to avoid the tag 'racist'? Or the tags 'homophobic', 'sexist', 'anti-Asian', etc.?"[18][4]
In 2001, it was reported that the Colorado Commission on Higher Education had paid the National Association of Scholars $25,000 to generate a report on several Colorado universities with education programs. The NAS report criticized diversity curricula and recommended that the University of Colorado's education program be suspended and new admissions to other programs be halted.[5] University of Colorado, Boulder dean William Stanley resigned in protest of what he called "teacher-bashing" by the NAS,[3] while regent Bob Sievers deplored "anti-teaching, anti-C.U./Boulder, anti-women and anti-minority bias". Questions were also raised regarding why money was paid to a "right-wing" organization like the NAS[3] rather than to a group "with credentials in teacher education".[5]
In September 2008,The New York Times described the NAS as among the politically conservative organizations intensively and successfullylobbying for federal funding for programs which emphasize "traditional American history, free institutions or Western civilization". TheTimes reported that NAS and allied organizations sought to advance conservative causes by attaching conditions to university donations.[2]
In January 2013 the Center for the Study of the Curriculum, along with NAS's affiliate the Texas Association of Scholars, released a report,Recasting History, on U.S. history courses taught in the Fall 2010 semester at theUniversity of Texas andTexas A&M University, which criticized the weight that the courses gave to race, class, or gender.[19][20] After the report's release, Jeremi Suri, the Mack Brown Distinguished Professor for Global Leadership, History, and Public Policy atUT-Austin, called the report "misleading, and frankly dumb".[21] Writing inThe Alcalde, the official alumni magazine, Suri defended theUniversity of Texas's course offerings, saying, "What we are teaching at UT, in almost all of our history and related courses, is a plural history of how many different people and parts of America relate to one another. What we are teaching is the beauty, the color, the promise, and also the challenge of contemporary America."[21]
In April 2013, NAS releasedWhat Does Bowdoin Teach? How a Contemporary Liberal Arts College Shapes Students, which criticizedBowdoin College inBrunswick, Maine for employing too few conservatives, as well as for its endorsements ofmulticulturalism andsustainability, and for its anti-hazing rules.[22][23] Writing in theBowdoin Sun (the college's official newspaper) Bowdoin presidentBarry Mills called the report "mean-spirited and personal".[24][22]
NAS is a member of the advisory board ofProject 2025,[25] a collection ofconservative andright-wing policy proposals fromthe Heritage Foundation to reshape theUnited States federal government and consolidateexecutive power should theRepublican nominee win the2024 presidential election.[26]
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