Intercollegiate Studies Institute

The Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) is a nonprofit educational organization that promotes conservative thought on college campuses.[1][2] It lists the following six as its core beliefs: limited government, individual liberty, personal responsibility, the rule of law, free-market economics, and traditional Judeo-Christian values.[3]

Intercollegiate Studies Institute
The Intercollegiate Studies Institute logo is an open book in the colors of the American flag
AbbreviationISI
MottoThink. Live free.
Formation22 June 1953
TypeNonprofit educational organization
HeadquartersWilmington, Delaware
President
Charles L. Copeland
Board Chairman
Alfred S. Regnery
Websitehome.isi.org

ISI was founded in 1953 by Frank Chodorov with William F. Buckley Jr. as its first president.[3] The organization sponsors lectures and debates on college campuses, publishes books and journals, provides funding and editorial assistance to a network of conservative and libertarian college newspapers, and finances graduate fellowships.[4]

History

In 1953, Frank Chodorov founded ISI as the Intercollegiate Society of Individualists, with a young Yale University graduate William F. Buckley Jr. as president.[5][6] E. Victor Milione, ISI's next and longest-serving president, established publications, a membership network, a lecture and conference program, and a graduate fellowship program.

ISI has been teaching various forms of intellectual conservatism on college campuses ever since.[7]

Past ISI president and former Reagan administration official T. Kenneth Cribb led the institute from 1989 until 2011, when current president Christopher G. Long took over. Cribb is credited with expanding ISI's revenue from one million dollars that year to $13,636,005 in 2005.

Programs and activities

ISI runs a number of programs on college campuses, including student societies and student papers. The organization also hosts academic-style conferences for undergraduates at various locations across the U.S.

In providing what ISI calls a classically liberal education to its member students, ISI runs other programs as well. It publishes a number of "Student's Guide to..." books, for example A Student's Guide to Liberal Learning, providing a classical introduction into several disciplines.[8] It also holds other events, such as conferences, that feature prominent conservative speakers and academics, and provides funding for students to attend these conferences. In this funding capacity ISI is affiliated with the Liberty Fund.

In the summer of 2005, ISI Books, the imprint of ISI, published It Takes a Family: Conservatism and the Common Good, by Pennsylvania Republican Senator Rick Santorum, which premiered at #13 on the New York Times Best Seller list. Passages from the book generated controversy during Santorum's 2006 reelection campaign, as well as during his 2012 presidential campaign.[9]

ISI administers the Collegiate Network, which provides editorial and financial outreach to conservative and libertarian student journalists.[10]

In the fall of 2006, ISI published the findings of its survey of the teaching of America's history and institutions in higher education. The Institute reported, as the title suggests, that there is a "coming crisis in citizenship."[11][12]

ISI Books

Intercollegiate Studies Institute operates ISI Books, which publishes books on conservative issues and distributes a number of books from other publishers.[13] Focus is largely on the humanities and the foundations of Western culture and its challenge by left-wing progressivism.

See also

References
  1. Honan, William H. (September 6, 1998). "A Right-Wing Slant on Choosing the Right College". The New York Times.
  2. Clymer, Adam (November 9, 2014). "Philip M. Crane, Former Illinois Congressman and Conservative Leader, Dies at 84". The New York Times.
  3. "About ISI". Intercollegiate Studies Institute.
  4. Wood, Kate; Binder, Amy (2013). Becoming Right: How Campuses Shape Young Conservatives. Princeton University Press. pp. 104–111. ISBN 0691145377. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
  5. Nash, George (2014). The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America Since 1945. Open Road Media. ISBN 9781497636408.
  6. Gillian Peele, 'American Conservatism in Historical Perspective', in Crisis of Conservatism? The Republican Party, the Conservative Movement, & American Politics After Bush, Gillian Peele, Joel D. Aberbach (eds.), Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011, p. 29
  7. New York Times, ARMIES OF THE RIGHT; The Young Hipublicans
  8. Student's Guide to the major disciplines Intercollegiate Studies Institute.
  9. Falcone, Michael (March 17, 2012). "Rick Santorum Was Warned That 2005 Book Could Become Fodder For Political Attacks". ABC News.
  10. Beer, Jeremy; Jeffrey, Nelson; Frohnen, Bruce (May 20, 2014). American Conservatism: An Encyclopedia. Open Road Media. ISBN 1497651573. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
  11. "Most College Graduates Flunk 'Civic Literacy,' Group Says". The Chronicle of Higher Education.
  12. "College Makes Students More Liberal, but Not Smarter About Civics". The Chronicle of Higher Education.
  13. "ISI Books". Intercollegiate Studies Institute. 2008. Retrieved 2008-05-17.
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