SOURCE: Wikipedia, captured 2020-09-15
This page last modified: 2021-11-20 10:12:03 -0800 (PST)
The Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) is a nonprofit educational organization that promotes conservative thought on college campuses. The Intercollegiate Studies Institute 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.
ISI was founded in 1953 by Frank Chodorov, with William F. Buckley Jr. as its first President.
The Intercollegiate Studies Institute 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.
In 1953, Frank Chodorov founded ISI as the Intercollegiate Society of Individualists, with a young Yale University graduate William F. Buckley Jr. as President. 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.
Past ISI president and former Reagan administration official T. Kenneth Cribb led the Intercollegiate Studies 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.
ISI runs a number of programs on college campuses, including student societies and student papers. The Intercollegiate Studies Institute 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. The Intercollegiate Studies Institute 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. The Intercollegiate Studies Institute 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.
In the Senate, Santorum was an outspoken conservative from a state with a history of electing moderates. This led many political commentators to speculate that his low approval ratings were due to some of his more controversial statements and opinions.
Among these controversies were his views on the privatization of Social Security and the teaching of intelligent design in public schools. In addition, his involvement in the Terri Schiavo case was considered by many in his state to be out of place.
All this left Santorum in a precarious position throughout the race. On May 31, 2006, the polling firm Rasmussen Reports declared that Santorum was the "most vulnerable incumbent" among the Senators running for re-election. SurveyUSA polling taken right before the election showed that Santorum was the least popular of all 100 Senators, with a 38% approval rating and a net approval rating of -19%.
See also: Main article: Rick Santorum's views on homosexuality
During the FOX News / Google-sponsored debate, which took place in Orlando, Florida on September 22, 2011, a gay soldier deployed in Iraq asked the candidates if they would take measures to "circumvent" the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT), if elected president. Santorum, who answered the question, called the repeal of DADT "social experimentation" -- and "tragic." "I would say any type of sexual activity has absolutely no place in the military," Santorum responded. "And the fact that they're making a point to include it as a provision within the military that we are going to recognize a group of people and give them a special privilege to -- and removing 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell,' I think tries to inject social policy into the military. And the military's job is to do one thing, and that is to defend our country." He added: "What we're doing is playing social experimentation with our military right now. And that's tragic."
While campaigning in New Hampshire, Santorum engaged college students who asked about his position on gay marriage, suggesting that allowing gay marriage would lead to the legalization of polygamy and other forms of marriage. The back-and-forth resulted in him being booed at the conclusion of the event. At another event, Santorum suggested that children would be better off having a father in prison than being raised by lesbian parents.
ISI administers the Collegiate Network, which provides editorial and financial outreach to conservative and libertarian student journalists.
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 Intercollegiate Studies Institute reported, as the title suggests, that there is a "coming crisis in citizenship."
Intercollegiate Studies Institute operates ISI Books, which publishes books on conservative issues and distributes a number of books from other publishers. Focus is largely on the humanities and the foundations of Western culture and its challenge by left-wing progressivism.
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