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A growing number of alumni organizations are withholding college donations over concerns about free speech. Most of these groups are run by politically moderate or conservative Boomer men. (The Wall Street Journal) |
NH: It isn’t easy to be a college administrator these days. Declining enrollment (see “College Enrollment Continues to Fall”), fewer international students, constantly changing Covid-19 restrictions, student protests…the list goes on.
Now they have something new to worry about: alumni withholding large donations over concerns about free speech. Of the nearly $50 billion that colleges and universities raised in 2020 from outside sources, more than $11 billion of it came from alumni.
About 20 alumni organizations dedicated to this issue have sprung up over the past two years.
In October, groups from five schools--Princeton, University of Virginia, Cornell, Washington and Lee University, and Davidson College--united to form a national organization called the Alumni Free Speech Alliance.
Most of these groups are headed by politically conservative or moderate Boomer men who believe that conservative viewpoints are being stifled on campus.
At the top of their bill of particulars: reports that some faculty and students are afraid to express their views in class or in print, and instances of celebrated scholars being disinvited to speak on campus due to the possibility that their remarks would violate "diversity, equity, and inclusion" standards.
Colleges maintain that the environment on campus has changed because their student bodies are much more diverse than when many of these alumni were in school. The way they see it, they’ve gotten caught in the middle of a bigger conflict.
Will Dudley, the president of Washington and Lee, told the WSJ: “We’re living in an environment where people on both sides, right and left, are engaged in a culture war and they want to use universities.”
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ABOUT NEIL HOWE
Neil Howe is a renowned authority on generations and social change in America. An acclaimed bestselling author and speaker, he is the nation's leading thinker on today's generations—who they are, what motivates them, and how they will shape America's future.
A historian, economist, and demographer, Howe is also a recognized authority on global aging, long-term fiscal policy, and migration. He is a senior associate to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C., where he helps direct the CSIS Global Aging Initiative.
Howe has written over a dozen books on generations, demographic change, and fiscal policy, many of them with William Strauss. Howe and Strauss' first book, Generations is a history of America told as a sequence of generational biographies. Vice President Al Gore called it "the most stimulating book on American history that I have ever read" and sent a copy to every member of Congress. Newt Gingrich called it "an intellectual tour de force." Of their book, The Fourth Turning, The Boston Globe wrote, "If Howe and Strauss are right, they will take their place among the great American prophets."
Howe and Strauss originally coined the term "Millennial Generation" in 1991, and wrote the pioneering book on this generation, Millennials Rising. His work has been featured frequently in the media, including USA Today, CNN, the New York Times, and CBS' 60 Minutes.
Previously, with Peter G. Peterson, Howe co-authored On Borrowed Time, a pioneering call for budgetary reform and The Graying of the Great Powers with Richard Jackson.
Howe received his B.A. at U.C. Berkeley and later earned graduate degrees in economics and history from Yale University.
