According to recently released Department of Education reports, the University of Virginia received $29,450,000.00 from the government of Saudi Arabia and $200,000.00 from the Peoples Republic of China. Exactly what the Saudis got for their small fortune is unknown, and UVA didn’t release the information publicly. Also unknown is what the Chinese government got for its sizeable contribution. Also receiving money from foreign countries were Virginia Polytechnical Institute & State University (VT), William and Mary, Old Dominion University, and Shenandoah University.

According to a story over at NRO, VA Rep. Frank Wolf (R) has recently sent a letter to Georgetown University expressing his concern over a $20,000,000 donation by Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal. This same prince famously offered to give $10 million to the Twin Towers Fund if the US re-examined its policies on Palestine; the gift was rejected by then Mayor Giuliani. It is unclear whether UVA received money from the prince.

Here is a brief summary of Parts 1-5 of the CRFV Blog’s series of posts on academic freedom.

Part 1: definition of liberal bias in the classroom. ‘Induce correct opinion rather than to search for wisdom’.

Part 2: the impact of liberal bias on higher education. Groupthink, less conservative PhD’s, harder to get jobs if socially conservative, speech codes . . .

Part 3: a look at a potential solution from Delegate Landes. Landes’ bill would impose transparency on higher education in Virginia.

Part 4: a problem with the potential solution. Account of liberal professor grading down a conservative student and how transparency would make no immediate impact.

Part 5: a solution to Part 3 along with other suggestions for reform. Focus on activism among legislators, alumni, and board of visitors as well as establishing ombudsmen for academic freedom claims.

Finally, I received one piece of criticism. A blog made up of college faculty and others who oppose academic freedom bills attacked my definition of liberal bias. I concede my original definition was convoluted (albeit still correct). Here is a simpler definition.

In 1991 Yale President Benno Schmidt warned that “the most serious problems of freedom of expression in our society today exist on campuses. The assumption seems to be that the purpose of education is to induce correct opinion rather than to search for wisdom and liberate the mind.” [taken from Neal's essay referenced in Part 5].

When: Saturday, March 29th from 11-6
Where: University of Virginia
Speakers:RPV Chairman John Hager, Delegate Rob Bell, PWC Chair Corey Stewart, plus Congressmen!
Why: Meet fellow College Republicans and learn about CRFV programs

For more info email: adamrbitely [at] gmail.com

This article, written by NR blogger Steve Shippert, gives a troubling look into the changing tactics of Iran and how they are taking more direct control of their foreign terrorist operations throughout the Middle East. While the news media and the Democrat candidates all bashed McCain for saying Iran was behind the Shia militias in Iraq, all the evidence, including the words of Gen David Patraeus, proves that McCain was right. Anyone interested in what is really happening in Iraq should read this article.

Delegate Landes’ academic freedom bill that would impose transparency on higher education is a step in the right direction. However, Landes’ bill does not solve all of the problems mentioned in Part 2 or Part 4.

A new program by the Center for Union Facts suggests firing America’s worst teachers by buying out their contracts. While humorous, this program hints at the biggest hurdle facing academic freedom advocates. How do we overcome the huge number of institutionalized liberals?

A saying goes “personnel is policy”. We must influence collegiate personnel by treating higher education like any other institution that benefits from huge sums of public funds. Checks and balances must be used with an emphasis on oversight of personnel.

I will suggest four specific solutions. My sources for these suggestions are Landes’ 2007 academic freedom bill, Dr. Jeremiah McCarthy, Stephen Balch’s essay ‘Where We’ve Come and Where We Should Go: The Route to Academic Pluralism”, and Anne D. Neal’s essay “Reforming the Politically Correct University: The Role of Alumni and Trustees”. Both papers can be found on AEI’s website under Reforming the Politically Correct University.

The American Association of University Professors found in a 2006 study that 45.7% of the American public believes “political bias is either a very serious problem or the biggest problem facing higher education” [Neal]. After highly public incidents like Ward Churchill, the public is with us on this issue. We just have to find a solution. I propose we focus our attention on encouraging activism among legislators, alumni, and board of visitors. I will talk about the role of each area of activism.

1) Legislators: Del. Landes’ bill is based off the principle of government oversight. This basic function of the legislative branch of government must be used to correct higher education from its excesses. I support Landes’ bill.

2) Alumni: alumni give 30% of the total private funding higher education receives [Neal]. This is a huge chunk of money and none of it should be directed to general funds. The money alumni give should be sent to specific areas for specific purposes. Alumni also need to join the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA). ACTA is a group founded in 1995 to promote academic freedom. They will help provide you with ways to influence your alma mater.

3) Board of Visitors (BOV): the BOV is an extremely influential body at each university and examples are plentiful of the positive impact they have caused. The University of Missouri’s BOV instituted two great policies. First, they mandated all Missouri syllabi contain a statement that grading is solely based on academic performance. Second, to ensure this is truly the case they set up a website where students could register complaints if they believe this policy was broken. Grievances are reviewed by special ombudsmen [Neal]. The other function of BOV is to impact the personnel question by forcing oversight of the hiring and tenure process. This duty cannot be solely left up to administrators and academics who may seek to establish a monoculture [Balch].

4) Ombudsmen: As mentioned above in 3, the ombudsmen’s purpose is to establish a clear path for academic freedom complaints to flow. This office would handle complaints from both students and professors who feel wrongly treated. This solution will cost a sizable amount of money (probably $80,000 per university), but the academic freedom problem is so pervasive that a clear method of resolving problems must be created. To reduce costs I suggest the office of the ombudsmen be given other responsibilities and a segment of the funds required to run the office be carved from each schools diversity office budget whose main responsibility should be to protect academic freedom.

Part 6 will conclude this expose on academic freedom. It will include a summary of all posts as well as external critiques.

Lt. Gov. Bolling announced today that he will not seek the governor’s office in ’09. This paves the way for AG McDonnell (more on this below). Bolling will seek re-election and probably be the presumptive Republican gubernatorial nominee in ’13 when the Republican brand is more in favor. Perhaps McDonnell should in some ways envy him!

Bolling is a conservative’s conservative. 2008′s General Assembly session highlighted his leadership abilities and once again proved he is worthy of the governor’s office. The CRFV Blog will be hosting a ‘live blog’ with Bolling in April.

McDonnell has yet to officially announce he is running for governor, but he has already established a strong grassroots team. I expect a formal announcement after the November elections. From my sources, the Bolling announcement was not expected by McDonnell’s people, but they are very appreciative of Bolling’s endorsement of the AG’s gubernatorial hopes.

A McDonnell Bolling ticket is unbeatable. Add Sen. Ken Cuccinelli or Del. Rob Bell as the AG candidate and the Republican statewide ticket is a perfect representation of Virginia’s diverse areas.

As vice-chair of the Republican Liberty Caucus of Virginia, I had the pleasure of listening to conservative State Senator, Ken Cuccinelli, deliver a fantastic speech on transportation and the general assembly. Mr. Cuccinelli also discussed a possible attorney general run. A must-watch for those concerned by Richmond’s actions and fans of the state senator.

In yet another sign of why John McCain is the best choice the GOP could have made, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Minnesota have all been steadily turning purple since McCain sealed the Republican nomination. All of these states went for Kerry in 2004 and have been considered solidly Democrat until this past month.

In fact, as the Rev. Wright controversy heated up, both Democrats’ poll numbers fell while McCain’s rose. Hopefully the same trend holds in Wisconsin, where McCain’s numbers have also been steadily trending up. With McCain leading in Ohio and turning blue states purple, it looks like the Comeback Kid is more poised than ever to lead Republicans out of the wilderness and into the White House. Knock on wood.

The College Republican National Committee has put together free, easy to use websites for CR chapters.

Chapter chairmen can request the blank.collegerepublicans.org URL of your choice by emailing storm@crnc.org with your chapter name, state and desired URL.

The sites were designed in such a way that as you add and update events and CR news in your STORM chapter page, the technology automatically updates your public website as well. Never has maintaining a public website been simpler! (h/t CRNC Blog)

Stealing this idea from Young America’s Foundation, the CRFV Blog is hosting a three week poll contest on the craziest liberal in America. Nominees were decided by JMU CRs. Vote to your right.

Each poll will last one week (Sunday-Sunday). Week 1=private citizens. Week 2=politicians. Week 3=Championship (top person from each advances).