No one benefits more from the money of rich people than colleges and universities.
They are the top draw for philanthropy among bequests and individual giving of $1 million or more, at $7.7 billion – even more than religious causes get from these categories.
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education found these numbers by digging into the statistics in the Giving USA report for 2017, and correctly concluded that high-dollar philanthropy is funding a lot of campus censorship.
It doesn’t have to be this way, according to Ashley Adams, FIRE’s annual fund manager. While FIRE has gradually put the fear of God into institutions of higher education for 20 years, it can only nibble around the edges of their bottom lines, with litigation and settlements.
Only one thing can stop schools from spending “their time, energy, and money pioneering new ways to chill expression,” and that’s a full-scale assault on their endowments by motivated donors.
If you give a gift to FIRE in lieu of a donation to a college, Adams says, the campus civil-liberties organization will pass along the message to the college, along with materials to help the college change its ways. You can also attach a “free speech stipulation” to your gift, conditioning it on the school adopting the Chicago Statement or other written free-speech policy.
Here’s an idea of my own: If you’re bothered by your college handing out abortion pills, censoring pro-life students and looking the other way when their displays are trashed, and training doctors to pressure women into abortions, tell them your would-be college donations are going to pro-life groups instead.
There’s no shortage of worthy groups and pregnancy care centers, but I’m a fan of those that don’t preach to the choir, such as Feminists for Life, Secular Pro-Life and Rehumanize International.
Our money is often the most powerful statement we make. It would be great if we make that statement deafening for the censors and petty tyrants who run higher education.
IMAGE: Shutterstock
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