Intercollegiate Studies Inst isi

SEE COLLEGIATE NETWORK

see incubators, universities, PC, pwl memo

NO MERRI

collegiate network newspapers Stanford and Dartmouth Rev (theel, coulter)

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RWW

12/02/2025

by

Kyle Mantyla

• Zack Beauchamp @ Vox: The alt-right won

Trump’s call to ban “Third World” immigration proves it.

• Malcolm Ferguson @ The New Republic: Trump Calls Ilhan Omar “Garbage” as His Team Breaks Out in Applause

Donald Trump went on a particularly racist tirade about the Democratic representative. And his entire Cabinet enjoyed it.

• Makena Kelly and Vittoria Elliott @ Wired: DOGE Isn’t Dead. Here’s What Its Operatives Are Doing Now

Contrary to popular reports, DOGE has “burrowed into the agencies like ticks,” government sources tell WIRED.

• Isaac Schorr @ Mediaite: Highbrow Conservative Organization Had Students Dine With Alex Jones

The Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI), a highbrow educational organization for conservative students with a long history of intellectual activism, invited students to a dinner with Tucker Carlson and Alex Jones this past spring that its president, Johnny Burtka, described as being “unforgettable.”

• Brian Kaylor @ Public Witness: Pentagon Preachers Proclaim a Lord of War

The most significant way Hegseth’s establishing his faith is with monthly Christian prayer services held at the Pentagon during work hours. Far from interfaith events, the gatherings have been sectarian and evangelistic. And in a hierarchical structure like the military, when the Secretary of War invites people to come to an event and speaks during it, such an invite might not seem very voluntary.

• Will Sommer @ The Bulwark: Here Come the Nick Fuentes Clones.

Given Fuentes’s popularity, it was probably only a matter of time before an outlet asked itself: Rather than tying ourselves into knots about this, what if we instead just got our own Nick Fuentes?

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REF

The Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI), a highbrow educational organization for conservative students with a long history of intellectual activism, invited students to a dinner withTucker Carlson and Alex Jones this past spring that its president, Johnny Burtka, described as being “unforgettable.”

According to a new report about the organization’s transformation under Burtka’s leadership from The Dispatch’sJohn McCormack and Michael Warren, ISI invited eight college students to an “exclusive retreat and dinner with Tucker Carlson” at Carlson’s home in southern Florida.

From McCormack and Warren’s story:

Founded nearly 75 years ago, ISI is a prominent conservative collegiate intellectual institution in the United States. ISI also runs the Collegiate Network, a collection of alternative conservative newspapers on college campuses across the country, and the eight student journalists had been selected by ISI to attend the retreat and dinner because their campus newspapers were top-performing publications. After a Journalism 101 session at the Art Ovation Hotel in Sarasota, the students filed into a shuttle for a 90-minute trip to Carlson’s home on Gasparilla Island, where Carlson dispensed career advice.

“Thanks to @TuckerCarlson for joining three generations of @amconmag editors/executive directors for a dinner with campus journalists from @ISI’s @collegiatenet,” ISI President Johnny Burtka posted on Twitter alongside a photo of himself, Carlson, then-Collegiate Network Executive DirectorDan McCarthy, and The American Conservative editorCurt Mills. “It was an unforgettable evening that our students will cherish for years to come.”

One person left out of Burtka’s photo was Carlson’s special guest at the dinner that night: Alex Jones, who appeared on Carlson’s podcast that aired the next day, April 9.

ISI’s ties to Carlson — and through him, Jones — are especially notable given the recent blow-up at The Heritage Foundation over its president’s attacks on critics of Carlson, who recently conducted a friendly, softball interview with white nationalist leader Nick Fuentes.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” remarked Chris Long, one of Burtka’s predecessors, after being told about the meal with Jones.

Per McCormack and Warren’s reporting, Burtka also blacklisted conservative writer Kevin Williamson from ISI events over ideological difference, and promoted Curtis Yarvin, an explicitly authoritarian political thinker who has admitted to not being “allergic” to white nationalism.

Long and former ISI board chairman Thomas Lynch resigned from the board after a failed attempt at ousting Burtka last month.

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33,649 views Aug 19, 2025 #Politics #Conservatism #ProjectCosmos

:{In the debut episode of Project Cosmos, Christopher Rufo, Patrick Deneen, Christopher Caldwell, Curtis Yarvin, and Johnny Burtka (President of ISI) gather for a provocative roundtable on one of the most urgent questions of our time: 👉 What is the future of executive power and can it serve the common good? This wide-ranging discussion covers: -The meaning of the common good in a pluralistic 21st-century America -Whether liberalism has failed, and what comes next -The origins and growth of the administrative state -Should bureaucracy be dismantled, reformed, or used for populist ends? -The role of DOGE reforms, tech, and MAGA in shaping political power -How the Civil Rights revolution reshaped executive authority -Is America an oligarchy—and what can be done about it? -Historical lessons from Hamilton, Jefferson, Jackson, and Lincoln -And the bold question: Should Americans embrace Caesarism?

📌 Project Cosmos is ISI’s new flagship series—intimate, living-room-style conversations where today’s leading thinkers tackle the deepest political and cultural challenges facing America. Guests: Christopher Rufo – writer, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute Patrick Deneen – political theorist, author of Why Liberalism Failed Christopher Caldwell – journalist, author of The Age of Entitlement Curtis Yarvin – political theorist and blogger Johnny Burtka – President, Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI)}:

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DAD? III PPG

n the early days of World War II, before America entered the war, President Franklin D. Roosevelt knew we urgently needed more planes, ships, tanks and other military equipment to aid Great Britain and defend ourselves.

“The Nazi masters of Germany have made it clear that they intend not only to dominate all life and thought in their own country, but also to enslave the whole of Europe, and then to use the resources of Europe to dominate the rest of the world,” he told America in a “fireside chat” on Dec. 29, 1940. If the Axis powers conquered Great Britain, “all of us, in all the Americas, would be living at the point of a gun — a gun loaded with explosive bullets, economic as well as military.”

Facing this threat, “We must be the great arsenal of democracy,” he said. “For us this is an emergency as serious as war itself. We must apply ourselves to our task with the same resolution, the same sense of urgency, the same spirit of patriotism and sacrifice as we would show were we at war.”

He called on Henry Ford, who transformed Michigan farmland into the Willow Run plant, employing thousands to build a bomber every hour. The plant was built and began building the B-24 bomber the next June.

It helped turn Detroit into an arsenal of democracy almost overnight, in production terms. Other industries followed, producing tanks and munitions at a pace that stunned the world.

Millions, including iconic “Rosie the Riveters,” were quickly trained to meet demand. Detroit’s automakers produced 297,000 aircraft, 2.7 million machine guns, and 41 billion rounds of ammunition.

America couldn’t do that today.

The American arsenal

The Arsenal of Democracy succeeded because all its essential components, including steel, dies, and machine tools originated from American production facilities.

Growing up in the Rust Belt part of Michigan, almost everyone I knew was involved in manufacturing. Our parents received employment from the automotive sector which offered them both financial stability and complete benefits packages including medical coverage and pension plans. We were America’s thriving middle class. But that dream shattered.

Detroit’s auto industry and our vital steel industry, once the backbone of America’s middle class, was hollowed out by poor trade deals and an obsession with quarterly profits over lasting prosperity. The decline started in 1965 with the Canada-U.S. Auto Pact, luring foreign automakers to Canada with subsidies and no tariffs.

Then came NAFTA in 1994. Ross Perot warned of a “giant sucking sound” of jobs fleeing south, and he was right. Factories rushed to Mexico for cheap labor, lax regulations, and minimal social costs.

As a result, today we can’t mobilize as we did in WWII. Closed factories and lost skills force reliance on foreign suppliers for critical parts like tools and chips, risking our security.

The disappearing tool-and-die industry, crafting precision tooling for car parts and missile casings, is manufacturing’s backbone. We once had thousands of tool and die shops, producing precision dies to thousandths of inch. Now only a fraction of companies remain.

The U.S. now imports more than 60% of its industrial dies, with China supplying over $2.5 billion worth of these products. Agile production changes depend on domestic dies. In WWII we converted our facilities into tank and bomber production sites within a few months because we had a national supply of industrial dies. Today, one imported die stuck at sea could halt production for months.

Machine Tools such as lathes, mills, grinders, and robots power manufacturing. In the 1960s, the U.S. produced 28% of the world’s machine tools. That rate dropped below 10% in 2020, while China’s share has risen to over 25%.

Most American builders have closed or been acquired abroad. Toolmakers and CNC operators, the craftsmen keeping factories running, are aging out with few young replacements. Today’s factories function primarily with equipment from foreign manufacturers which require extended delivery periods and often have poor support.

Crippled in a crisis

In a crisis, our military would be crippled if it had to rely on critical foreign supplies for its wartime operations.The shortage of skilled labor is perhaps our greatest loss. The training programs of WWII transformed new recruits into skilled machinists during a period of just months. The U.S. currently lacks 800,000 manufacturing workers and experts predict this shortage will expand to 2.4 million by 2030.

Today’s wars, from Ukraine to potential Taiwan conflicts, rely on weapons, drones, and electronics, all needing precise parts and chips. Yet 90% of advanced chips come from Asia.

Recent chip shortages have exposed our supply chain’s fragility. The impending conflict in the Taiwan Strait would create an immediate crisis for U.S. defense manufacturing operations.

Our global interdependence and just-in-time logistics make us vulnerable. Reshoring efforts like TSMC’s Arizona chip plants are promising, but years from full capacity.

Reviving the American Arsenal of Democracy demands bold action now. We must support domestic die making operations with grants and tax credits to restore tool and die shops throughout the Midwest and use Section 232 tariffs to protect them from unfair trade practices and prevent illegal trade evasion. Current steel and aluminum tariffs must be aggressively enforced.

Additionally, reviving our once great machine tool industry will also require the strategic use of Section 232 tariffs to level the playing field against unfair foreign competition.

To meet our skilled labor shortage, we must also establish national apprenticeship programs that follow the “Training Within Industry” model from World War II.

America’s strength

I have lived through many factory shutdowns and the disappearance of essential skills in my home state of Michigan. The Arsenal of Democracy serves as both an historical account of what was possible for America and a warning about what might happen in the future.

America’s strength has always come from its ability to design and manufacture. We need to restore that ability before the damage becomes permanent and irreparable. If that happens, America will see our sovereignty dangerously diminished and our security, economic as well as military, possibly fatally weakened.

John Burtka III is an entrepreneur and former Michigan manufacturing executive now living in Oxford, Pa.

GGL 12 25

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John A. Burtka IV was named the eighth President and Chief Executive Officer of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute in August 2020.

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1 day ago — ISI invited students to a dinner with Alex Jones this past spring that its president, Johnny Burtka, described as being "unforgettable."

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1 day ago — ISI invited students to a dinner with Alex Jones this past spring that its president, Johnny Burtka, described as being "unforgettable."

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Videos

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Apprenticeship can be this broad-based foundation for helping people determine what they want to do actually getting real skills and experience.

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The Right's Attack on Academia

So how does all this relate to the attack on academic freedom which Foner and Gilmore complained about?

It turns out that many of the most important attacks are part of a campaign organized by conservative foundations, as a study by report by the National Committee on Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP) found. In a section entitled, "Targeting the Academy" the report discusses right-wing attacks on academia, including "political correctness" campaigns, efforts to use alumni contributions to advance a conservative agenda,efforts to take over orde-fund the National Endowment for the Humanities and to de-fund the National Endowment for the Arts. Theseattacks follow the pattern outlined in the Powell memo -- attack the patriotism of liberals and attempt to convince trustees of colleges and universities to remove them, replacing them with ideological "conservatives."(4)

The FSFG supports organizations like Accuracy in Academia, the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, theNational Association of Scholars, the Madison Center for Educational Affairs (their "Collegiate Network" links over 70 student newspapers), the Institute for Educational Affairs and others. These organizations work to transform academia toward the right's ideological agenda.

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The [pwl]  memo is important because it reveals the power that conservatives attributed to the political nature of education and the significance this view had in shaping the long-term strategy they put into place in the 1960's and 1970's to win an ideological war against liberal intellectuals, who argued for holding government and corporate power accountable as a precondition for extending and expanding the promise of an inclusive democracy. The current concerted assault on government and any other institutions not dominated by free-market principles represents the high point of afifty-year strategy that was first put into place by conservative ideologues such as Frank Chodorov, founder of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute; publisher and author William F. Buckley; former Nixon Treasury Secretary William Simon, and Michael Joyce, the former head of both the Olin Foundation and the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation.

The Powell Memo is important because it is the most succinct statement, if not the founding document, for establishing a theoretical framework and political blueprint for the current assault on any vestige of democratic public life that does not subordinate itself to the logic of the alleged free market....

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inside higher ed

In the past 20 years this core group of funders has, by many reports, built and strategically linked an impressive array of almost 500 think tanks, centers, institutes and "concerned citizens groups" both within and outside of the academy. It is particularly telling to observe the funding sources of these organizations during the first 10-15 years of their existence, when their ideological identities were being established. A small sampling of these entities include the Cato Institute,the Heritage Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute,the Manhattan Institute, the Hoover Institution, the Claremont Institute, the American Council of Trustees and Alumni,Middle East Forum,Accuracy in Media, and theNational Association of Scholars, as well as Horowitz's Center of the Study of Popular Culture.

The absence of formal organizational linkages between the entities within these networks creates an illusion of independent analytical voices reaching similar conclusions about strategic policy issues, a technique known in the public relations industry as “astroturfing.” This network has developed an enormous capacity to generate “data” consistent with the targeted political agenda and world views of its core group of funders to quickly and redundantly represent these issues in the mainstream press by what appear to be the voices of independent analysts and to translate these viewpoints into public policy that serves the focused ideological agenda of this core group of funders. The Bradley Foundation under Michael Joyce's leadership has even established a publishing house, Encounter Books, to ensure that grantees like Horowitz have a quasi-academic outlet for their viewpoints.

The degree of interconnectedness within this network of organizations is considerable but almost invisible to the casual observer. For example, when ACTA’s president, Anne Neal, introduced herself to the Select Committee on Academic Freedom in Higher Education in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, she presented ACTA as “a bipartisan network of college and university trustees and alumni across the country dedicated to academic freedom.”

Full disclosure should have required some mention of the fact that ACTA (see funding sources above), which changed its name from the National Alumni Forum in 1998, was established by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute in 1994. The Intercollegiate Studies Institute in turn evolved from William Bennett’s Madison Center for Educational Affairs and the Institute for Educational Affairs founded by Irving Kristol, Michael Joyce’s mentor, and William Simon, the first president of the John M. Olin Foundation. Bennett and Kristol also sit on ACTA’s Board of Directors. The remarkably consistent record of funding across all of the incarnations of this organization and the high degree of redundancy with Horowitz’s own, highly partisan Center for the Study of Popular Culture is not consistent with Neal’s definition of ACTA as an independent, non-partisan organization.

Another example illustrative of the quietly incestuous nature of this network is presented by an article by the Boston Globecolumnist Cathy Young. The article is entitled “Liberal bias in the ivory tower” and by all appearances is an independent opinion piece written by a regular Globe columnist. At the end of the article Young identifies herself as “a contributing editor at Reason Magazine.” What is undisclosed in the article is that Reason Magazine is the publication of the Reason Foundation, whose funding sources are virtually the same as those funding Horowitz’s "Academic Bill of Rights" project and Neal’s ACTA.

Young’s premise for the article is stated in her opening sentence: “Yet another study has come out documenting what most conservatives consider to be blindingly obvious: the leftwing tilt of the American professoriate.” The study that she references was conducted by Stanley Rothman, now emeritus professor at Smith College; S. Robert Lichter, emeritus professor at George Mason University; and Neil Nevitte of the University of Toronto, and was published in the online journal Forum. This study was also cited by Neal in her testimony in Pennsylvania. Young does not inform her readers that Rothman is director of the Center for the Study of Social and Political Change, a center with funding sources that are remarkably redundant with Horowitz’s Center for the Study of Popular Culture. Lichter is also president of the Center for Media and Public Affairs, which again has funding sources that are redundant with those referenced earlier.

In addition, a recent article in Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting is highly critical of Lichter’s research methodology. Another example of such conflicted interests is provided by Professor Thomas Reeves. When Reeves writes in strong support of Horowitz’s proposals on the History News Network,he fails to note that he is a spokesman for the California Association of Scholars, a branch of the National Association of Scholars (see funding sources above) and that he is director of the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, which was, again, brought into being by the Olin and Bradley Foundations.

This manufactured drumbeat against “academic bias” is amplified by Stanley Kurtz of the Hoover Institution (see funding sources above), Heather MacDonald, a John M. Olin fellow at the Manhattan Institute (see funding sources above), and Brian C. Anderson, editor of the Manhattan Institute’s City Journal and a former research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (see funding sources above).

The relentlessness with which columnists and experts with direct funding relationships with Olin, Scaife, Bradley, Koch and Coors level charges of academic bias and assert the need for legislative reform of higher education is remarkable. The goal of this narrowly focused and ideologically driven public relations campaign can only be understood in terms of its fostering of a political climate in which federal regulatory “reform” of what is universally recognized as the finest system of higher education in the world, will be tolerated.

Indeed, as has been discussed, such regulatory oversight may already be in the offing. The academy stands today as one of the last spaces in America where the democratic ideas that shape the social, economic and political fabric of the nation can be openly and independently debated on the basis of their merits and without coercion or distortion from vested economic and political interests. It is certainly in the national interest that it remain such.

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huge funding? pretty much the same as Collegiate Network

Intercollegiate Studies Institute

From SourceWatch

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Intercollegiate_Studies_Institute

Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) is based in Delaware and was founded in 1953, according to its website, to "identify the best and the brightest college students and to nurture in these future leaders the American ideal of ordered liberty."A

"To accomplish this goal, ISI seeks to enhance the rising generation's knowledge of our nation's founding principles -- limited government, individual liberty, personal responsibility, the rule of law, market economy, and and moral norms," the website states.^[1]

Overview

ISI claims that it has representatives "at over 900 colleges, and with more than 50,000 ISI student and faculty members on virtually every campus in the country."^[1]

ISI organizes educational lectures and meetings on campus and "offers graduate fellowships to aspiring college teachers and circulates more than half a million copies annually of major publications". It also published approximate 20 books a year.

ISI also has an extensive campus reach through its support of the Collegiate Network though which, according to its website, ISI "administers a network of nearly 80 independent student newspapers at colleges across the country. Member papers of the Collegiate Network are eligible to receive technical and financial assistance as well as training opportunities through dedicated conferences and internships at national publications." [1]

"Annually ISI selects 50 outstanding undergraduates to participate in the ISI Honors Program. These fellowships include a weeklong summer conference, an ongoing mentoring relationship in a chosen field, a library of ISI books, and a special career development conference," it website states.

"ISI administers a network of nearly 80 independent student newspapers at colleges across the country. Member papers of the Collegiate Network are eligible to receive technical and financial assistance as well as training opportunities through dedicated conferences and internships at national publications.

In a speech to the Heritage Foundation [date unknown], the ISI President, T. Kenneth Cribb Jr, stated "We must...provide resources andguidance to an elite which can take up anew the task of enculturation. Through its journals, lectures, seminars, books and fellowships, this is what ISI has done successfully for 36 years. The coming of age of such elites has provided the current leadership of the conservative revival. But we should add a major new component to our strategy: the conservative movement is now mature enough to sustain a counteroffensive on that last Leftist redoubt, the college campus...We are now strong enough to establish a contemporary presence for conservatism on campus, and contest the Left on its own turf. We plan to do this by greatly expanding the ISI field effort, its network of campus-based programming." [2]

In a Speech in 1996 Cribb optimistically reviewed the impact of groups such as ISI, the Young America's Foundation, the Heritage Foundation, the Federalist Society, the Claremont Institute and the Acton Institute. "...An infrastructure now exists that was but a dream even three decades ago. Scholars, books, journals, seminars, reprints, tapes, fellowships, and similar resources are now available in abundance to provide intellectual substance for young minds. The plenitude is so great that the main problem is organizing what is available and bringing it to bear where needed," he said. [3]

Funding

ISI is a 501(c)(3) non-profit educational organization. The Capital Research Centre, a conservative group, states ISI's 1998 revenue - the most recent IRS return it reports on - as $4.7 million and a staff of 35. CRC reports thatEli Lilly& Co Foundation contributed $5,000 in each of 1995 and 1996.[4]

Charity Navigator reports that for the year to March 2002, ISI's revenue was $6.1 million. [5].

At ISI's 50th anniversary celebration in late November 2003,Edwin J. Feulner, Jr., the Chairman of the ISI Board of Trustees and President of the Heritage Foundation enthusiastically reported on the dramatic growth in ISI's financial resources during Cribb's 14 year stint as President. "When he took the reigns as president in 1989, the Institute operated with an annual budget of about a million dollars. By 2001, the budget had grown to six million. During a downturn in the economy, a time when many other nonprofit organizations were slashing their budgets and their programs, ISI's budget has continued to grow, last year to eight million dollars, this year to a projected eleven million," Feulner said. [6]

"This budget growth has been accompanied by even faster program growth, including the launch of a new publishing imprint, ISI Books, the acquisition of the Collegiate Network of independent student newspapers, and a massive growth in the Institute's traditional membership, lecture, conference, and fellowship programs," Feulner said.

Media Transparency lists ISI as having received $13.3 million since 1985 with the dominant recent funders being the [7]:

• Sarah Scaife Foundation
• Allegheny Foundation
• Castle Rock Foundation coors
• Earhart Foundation
• Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation
• JM Foundation
• John M. Olin Foundation
• Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation KOCH
• Philip M. McKenna Foundation

Personnel

• T. Kenneth Cribb Jr is President of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute. "Mr. Cribb was Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs in the Reagan Administration, serving as President Reagan's top advisor on domestic matters. Earlier in the Administration he held the position of Counselor to the Attorney General. He also served as Vice Chairman of the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board from 1989 to 1992. He is President of the Collegiate Network, Inc., an association of independent college newspapers; Vice-President of the Council for National Policy; and Counselor to the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies," his biographical note on the ISI website states. According to the Capital Research Centre, Cribb was paid $292,311 as President in 1988.
• H. Spencer Masloff, Jr. is Vice-President of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute. "Mr. Masloff has managed ISI's Office of Development and Fundraising since 1989. Prior to working at ISI, he was Vice-President of marketing and development at Free Congress Foundation where he had also earlier served as director of development," his biographical note on the ISI website states.
• Jeff J. Cain is Executive Vice President
• Jeffrey O. Nelson is Vice-President, Publications and serves as publisher of ISI Books, the Institute's publishing imprint. "He was for ten years the editor of The Intercollegiate Review and is currently the editor of The University Bookman. He has edited two collections: Redeeming the Time, by Russell Kirk, and Perfect Sowing: Reflections of a Bookman, by Henry Regnery. He serves as the general editor of the Institute's "Student Guides to the Major Disciplines" series and the "Library of Modern Thinkers","his biographical note on the ISI website states. [8]
• Sarah Longwell,a public relations employee of lobbyist Rick Berman and the Center for Union Facts, is a press contact on some ISI news releases.
• J. Bayard Boyle, Jr. is Chairman of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute
• Alfred S. Regnery is Vice Chairman
• Merrill S. Moyer is Secretary-Treasurer
• T. William Boxx Trustee is a Trustee

Alumni

ISI boasts that "outstanding" members of its alumni include:

• Richard V. Allen, who according to the website, "was President Reagan's first National Security Adviser following his service as then-Governor Reagan's Chief Foreign Policy Adviser from 1977 to 1980. He had previously served in the Nixon Administration as a senior member of the National Security Council. Today, he is a Senior Fellow at the [Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace]] and serves as an international business consultant in Washington". He is also a member of ISI's Board of Trustees.

• Edwin J. Feulner Jr is president of the Heritage Foundation. According to the ISI website "during the Reagan Administration he served in several key posts, including consultant for domestic policy and on the President's Commission on White House Fellows. In 1989, President Reagan conferred upon him the Presidential Citizen's Medal for his leadership in the conservative movement". Feulner is chairman of the ISI's board of trustees.

• John F. Lehman Jr "served as Secretary of the Navy under President Reagan and oversaw the build-up of the American naval fleet in the 1980s. Today, he is chairman of J.F. Lehman & Company, a private equity investment corporation," according to the ISI website. "In 2001, Dr. Lehman was appointed to the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States," his biographical note states.

Contact

Intercollegiate Studies Institute, Inc.

3901 Centerville Road

P.O. Box 4431

Wilmington, DE 19807-0431

Phone: (800) 526-7022 or (302) 652-4600

Fax: (302) 652-1760

Email: info AT isi.org

Web: http://www.isi.org

Articles and resources

Related SourceWatch Articles

• Think tanks

References

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Intercollegiate Studies Institute, "About ISI", Intercollegiate Studies Institute website, accessed May 2009.

External links

• See [9] which cites the original Cribb quote from Ellen Messer-Davidow, "Manufacturing the Attack on Liberalized Higher Education," Social Text, 36 (Fall, 1993), page 47.
• T. Kenneth Cribb, Jr, "The Founders and the Rising Generation, a speech to The Philadelphia Society Williamsburg, Virginia, November 23, 1996

Retrieved from "http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Intercollegiate_Studies_Institute"

Categories: Academia | United States | Politics (U.S.)

==

CRC and its allies

For an organization whose mission is to expose the funding sources and organizational ties of the left, the Capital Research Center is ironically protective of its own connections. As a non-profit organization, for example, it is not obliged to report the names of its donors, only its total revenue -- which amounted in 2007 to about $2.5 million.

The CRC's tax filings similarly include the name of its officers, its directors -- who include former Reagan administration Attorney General Edwin Meese III -- and its two highest-paid employees, but the membership of its National Advisory Board has not been revealed since 2001. At that time, however, the board was heavily loaded with individuals tied to both the Reagan administration and the Heritage Foundation, as well as to various other right-wing publications, think-tanks, and legal foundations.

Although the evidence is skimpy, it suggests that many of the same people who were involved with CRC when it was founded in 1984 may have continued to be connected with the group and its ongoing agenda.

One of the more interesting names on the 2001 list is that of T. Kenneth Cribb, Jr., a former Reagan adviser and president of the Intercollegiant Studies Institute (ISI). Although it is not well known, ISI is one of the largest recipients of grants from conservative foundations, having been listed a few years ago as second only to the Heritage Foundation.

Much of ISI's activity is carried on through its Collegiate Network, which creates and subsidizes conservative student publications on college campuses.James O'Keefe -- the young filmmaker whose sting operation allegedly caught ACORN employees endorsing illegal activities -- was the founder of one such publication when he was a student at Rutgers University.

O'Keefe had also received advice and a start-up grant to help launch the Rutgers Centurion from Morton Blackwell's Leadership Institute -- which has been training young Republican dirty tricksters since the 1970's, ranging from Karl Rove to Jeff Gannon. Blackwell himself appeared on a "Defunding the Left" panel at the 2001 Conservative Political Action Conference, along with CRC president Terrence Scanlon.

Both Cribb and Blackwell have strong ties to the Heritage Foundation as well. Blackwell was a close associate of the late founder of the group's founder, Paul Weyrich, for over 40 years. Cribb is a good friend (pdf) of former Heritage president Edwin Feulner.

These multiple cross-connections again suggest that the goal of defunding the left has been carried along by a small, tightly-knit group of conservatives for over 25 years, and that James O'Keefe's sting operation against ACORN is merely the latest step towards that goal.

spinoff

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Jack_Miller_Center

sued

Jack Miller Center

The Jack Miller Center

The Jack Miller Center (JMC) describes itself as a non-partisan nonprofit private operating foundation dedicated to enriching education in America’s founding principles and history. It has also been described as part of the right-wing movement to fund professors and research to advance the "conservative" movement.^[1] As noted in the article, "Conservatives Try New Tack on Campuses," JMC was founded by millionaire Jack Miller "after first collaborating with the 55-year-old Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI), which promotes conservative thought on campus."^[2]

At one point, ISI sued JMC employees based on allegations that ISI donor and other "proprietary" information was taken when JMC became "independent" of ISI, a conservative think tank but it appears that lawsuit was resolved.^[3]

"Private Effort to Create Courses Draws Praise — and Charges of 'Buying' Curricula" is another article describing some of the concerns that have been raised about groups like JMC investing in academic courses they want to see taught.^[4]

How JMC Promotes Itself

The following information is based on JMC's PR description of itself:

The center provides resources for faculty development and the support of partner programs that advance the education in American history and founding principles that students need in order to be wise and engaged citizen leaders. These resources include ongoing programs and support services to a growing network of college professors on more than 150 campuses, who want to expand opportunities for their students to learn about American history, government, and political thought.

Principal Leadership of JMC

Jack Guipre Director of Operations 111 Presidential Blvd., Suite 146 Philadelphia, PA 19004 Tel. 484-436-2063 Email: jguipre@gojmc.org

Media Michael A. Deshaies Vice President, Communications Tel. 484-436-2067 Email: mdeshaies@gojmc.org

Staff of JMC

These staff bios are part of JMC's PR about itself:

Jack Miller Chairman Jack Miller is a prominent Chicago area entrepreneur and philanthropist. He is the founder and former President/CEO of Quill Corporation, which became the nation’s largest independent direct marketer of office products, employing over 1,300 people with annual sales in excess of $630 million before being acquired by Staples, the giant office supply company in 1998. After the sale of Quill, Mr. Miller became chairman of the board at Successories Inc. a business-to-business mail order firm which he sold in 2009. He also focuses on real estate development and investment at Millbrook Properties and The Benida Group. He is a very active philanthropist serving as chairman of the Jack Miller Center for Teaching America’s Founding Principles and History and President of the Jack Miller Family Foundation, which supports a wide variety of community improvement efforts.He recently established the Foundation for Peripheral Neuropathy with the idea of it becoming a public foundation supporting the funding of collaborative research at a number of institutions.

Mr. Miller was inducted into Philanthropy World magazine’s Hall of Fame in January, 2008. Mr. Miller graduated from the University of Illinois with a degree in Journalism. He is the author of Simply Success, How to Start, Build and Grow a Multimillion-Dollar Business ‘the Old Fashioned Way, published by John Wiley & Sons in February, 2008. Please visit www.simplysuccessbook.com

Rear Admiral Michael Ratliff, (US Navy, ret.) President Prior to moving into the nonprofit higher education sector in 2000, Mike Ratliff served a distinguished 30-year naval career, retiring as Director of Naval Intelligence. He served at every level of responsibility including seven years at sea. As the Navy’s top intelligence officer, he was responsible for 17,000 personnel and a budget of $1.9 billion. Admiral Ratliff received his bachelor’s from Towson University, studied as a Fulbright Scholar at the London School of Economics, was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow at Johns Hopkins, and a Capstone Fellow at the National Defense University. He can be reached at mratliff@gojmc.org.

Michael A. Deshaies Vice President Mike Deshaies is responsible for communications and development. A 1980 graduate of the State University of New York at Oswego with a bachelor’s in communications and political science, he has more than 25 years experience in communications in government, manufacturing, consumer products, technology and in the nonprofit sector. Mr. Deshaies can be reached at mdeshaies@gojmc.org.

Dr. Michael L. Andrews Vice President Dr. Andrews oversees the Miller Center’s academic programs and higher-education initiatives. A native of Montana, he received his doctorate in American intellectual history from Tulane University, and his master’s degree, also from Tulane, in European history, with an emphasis on modern Germany. He formerly served on the faculty of St. John’s College, teaching at both the Santa Fe and Annapolis campuses. Dr. Andrews can be reached at mandrews@gojmc.org.

Dr. Pamela Edwards Director of Academic Initiatives Pamela Edwards studied Philosophy at the University of British Columbia and Intellectual History at Simon Fraser University in Canada before writing her doctoral thesis on Coleridge’s Political Thought at University College London. She has published numerous scholarly essays and reviews in journals and edited volumes including the JBS, Enlightenment and Dissent and the Journal of the History of Political Thought, Blackwell’s Companion to Eighteenth Century Britain, and with Frederick Beiser The Cambridge History of Nineteenth–century Philosophy. She is the author of The Statesman’s Science: History, Nature and Law in the Political Thought of Samuel Taylor Coleridge which was published by Columbia University Press in 2004. She has recently authored the essay on Coleridge’s political and religious thought for the Oxford Handbook of Coleridge which will be published in the Spring of 2009. From 2002–2007 she was a member of the History Department of Syracuse University. Her new scholarly work focuses on historicism, evolutionary ideas of progress, and the political implications of the theory of life controversy during the long British Enlightenment. She can be contacted at pedwards@gojmc.org.

Dr. Rafael Major Director of Faculty Development and Online Education Rafael Major is the Director of Faculty Development and Online Education. Prior to joining the Miller Center, he taught at Michigan State University’s James Madison College, Rhodes College (Memphis, Tenn.) and Trinity College (Hartford, CT). In addition to academics, he is a former restaurant owner and advertising manager. Dr. Major has published article-length studies on Shakespeare, Machiavelli, Leo Strauss, Q. Skinner, and is currently finishing a book length study on Shakespeare’s Comedies. He can be reached at rmajor@gojmc.org.

Jack Guipre Director of Operations Jack Guipre serves as director of operations. Mr. Guipre received a bachelor’s degree from Montana State University and a J.D. from New York University. Mr. Guipre has clerked for judges at the Montana District Court, Montana Supreme Court and the Supreme Court of Palau. He can be contacted at jguipre@gojmc.org.

Nikki Longworth Development Consultant Nikki Longworth provides consulting services regarding development efforts for the Jack Miller Center. She has worked with not-for-profits since 1974, beginning with The American Freedom Train Foundation, Inc., a traveling museum of American history that toured the country during the nation’s bicentennial. Her non-profit experience also includes management positions with the Alexandria Virginia Tourist Council, the Lake Placid Olympic Organizing Committee, the Hilton Head Island Chamber of Commerce and the Indianapolis City Market Corporation, where she served as executive director. She was public information director at the U.S. Small Business Administration and an associate director of public affairs at the White House. She can be reached at nikkil@hughes.net.

Emily Koons Programs Officer As Programs Officer, Ms. Koons organizes all logistical aspects of Jack Miller Center events, including the annual Summer Institutes, Academic Summits, Fellows’ Reunions, and other conferences. A native of Austin, Texas, Ms. Koons graduated from Davidson College in 2009 with a degree in history and a minor in economics. She studied abroad in Britain (Cambridge) and Prague (Charles University). Her award-winning thesis addressed Colonial Print and Politics in Philadelphia. She can be contacted at ekoons@gojmc.org.

Nathan Fortner Assistant Development Officer Nathan Fortner serves as the Assistant Development Officer. A native of Lobelville, Tennessee, Mr. Fortner earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and History at the University of Tennessee in 2006 and his Masters Degree in Political Science at Villanova University in 2009. Mr. Fortner’s previous experiences include working with the East Tennessee Historical Society and as a clerk with the law firm of McDonald, Levy and Taylor of Knoxville, Tennessee. He also served as an intern for Senator Bill Frist and has worked with NASA’s reduced gravity flight program. He may be contacted at nfortner@gojmc.org.

References

1. ↑ Patricia Cohen, "Conservatives Try New Tack on Campuses," New York Times (Sept. 22, 2008), http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/22/education/22conservative.html?pagewanted=print
2. ↑ Id.
3. ↑ Ella Powers, "Conservative Group Says Inside Information Got Out," Higher Ed (Oct. 19, 2007), http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/10/19/isi
4. ↑ Article by David Glenn, available at http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=96259049231&topic=12932 (need alternate cite for original reporting)

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EIN: 23-6050131

Intercollegiate Studies Institute, Inc.

Wilmington, DE 19807

Evolved from the Madison Center for Educational Affairs (William Bennett, et. al.) and the Institute for Educational Affairs (Irving Kristol).

A mainstay of the Old Right, the Institute publishes the monthly CAMPUS: America's Student Newspaper; Intercollegiate Review; ISI Update; Political Science Review;

 and the quarterly journal Modern Age. Opposes multi-culturalism and all forms of liberalism.

Web address: www.isi.org

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