From: kowan@ai.mit.edu (Rich Cowan)
Subject: Expose of Right-wing Funding on Campus
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: ?
Distribution: na
Date: Sun, 10 Jan 1993 21:18:43 GMT

NEW PROJECT:   INVESTIGATING RIGHT WING FUNDING ON CAMPUS
c/o UCP, Box 748, Cambridge, MA  02142    (617)  354-9363

	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, polisci 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" according to its annual report, and its officers 
who teach at Tufts 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 who 
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) is 
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.

Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive