From: New Liberation News Service <nlns@igc.apc.org>
Subject: NLNS: Right Wing Funding on Campus
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: daemon@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: ?
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 17:45:00 GMT

/* Written  6:29 pm  Jan 18, 1993 by nlns@igc.apc.org in igc:nlns.news */
/* ---------- "NLNS Packet 3.7 *** 1/18/93" ---------- */

NEW PROJECT:  INVESTIGATING RIGHT WING FUNDING 
ON CAMPUS
University Conversion Project

(NLNS)--The University Conversion Project is a new 
clearinghouse which promotes peace activism and 
investigative journalism on campus.   In March of 1993, 
we are producing and distributing a special 40-page issue 
of our publication on investigating and questioning the 
right-wing funding of policy programs and student 
movements on campus.  We invite all of you to assist us 
in this effort by sending stories about right-wing groups 
who have disrupted progressive student and faculty 
organizing.  We also seek information on  international 
studies, poli-sci and other academic programs whose 
politics have been tainted by funding from right-wing 
corporations, agencies & foundations.

RATIONALE
	History has shown that movements for social 
change are most successful when campuses are active.  
Partly in response to this fact, military contractors and 
conservative foundations have, in their own words, 
attempted to "capture the ideological high ground" by 
funding right-wing campus newspapers (through the 
Madison Center for Educational Affairs) and endowing 
professorships and research programs which reflect their 
political views.  Academic programs with a public service 
mission have, in many cases, become mouthpieces for 
military-dependent firms such as Raytheon, Olin, and 
McDonnell Douglas.  Many student activists we work with 
find obstacles placed in their path by well-funded rivals 
crusading to maintain militarism, sexism and 
ethnocentrism under the guise of opposition to "political 
correctness."
	Thousands of students and faculty members are 
hungry for tools to counter this right-wing agenda.  UCP 
has developed a reputation for helping young 
investigators get started, and we have built up a strong 
activist base at over 80 campuses who puts the packets 
we create to good use. 
	Recognizing that we cannot match the right-wing 
dollar for dollar, we can instead expose their funding of 
campus activities and encourage people to question their 
true motives and intentions.  For example, our intern Erin 
Bush of the University of Pittsburgh has exposed how 
Raytheon and other military contractors fund the 
Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis, an affiliate of Tufts 
University.  The Institute works to "anticipate and 
preclude arms control agreements" accoding to its annual 
report, and its officers who teach at Tuft have received 
hefty salaries for "outside activities" such as countering 
the European peace movement and attacking critics of the 
Patriot missile.
	Few publications have addressed the effect of 
money on the politics of university programs, and no 
other organization to our knowledge is working to 
distribute research and organizing guides to newer 
activists who are more likely to use them.  In just over 
one year, we have become known for providing 
information on military influence that is not available 
elsewhere.  We invite any organization whose 
effectiveness has been hampered by right-wing efforts to 
assist us in compiling this research guide and in 
distributing it nationally.

	Thank you very much.
	Rich Cowan, 
	Clearinghouse Coordinator
	
	Swan Keyes, 
	student intern
	
	Brian Sangudi, 
	student intern
	
	Rob Brosen, 
	student intern

Note:  This project is funded by individual subscriptions 
to our project and by the Arca Foundation.  Even so, the 
total annual budget for this national project (about 
$15,000) = about $1 for every $100 spent nationally on 
the funding of right-wing student movements.  For more 
information or to reserve a 1-year subscription ($25 
regular, $20 student, $10 low income) to our organizing 
packets, please write:  

UCP, Box 748, Cambridge, MA  02142 or call (617)  354-
9363; 
kowan@ai.mit.edu (Rich Cowan).

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