National Association of Scholars

National Association of Scholars
Name	National Association of Scholars
Abbreviation	NAS
Formation	1987
Type	Nonprofit organization
Headquarters	United States
Leader title	President

National Association of Scholars The National Association of Scholars is a United States-based nonprofit organization founded in 1987 that engages in higher education policy, curriculum debates, and academic governance. It participates in public discourse on faculty hiring, tenure, admissions standards, and curriculum design, interacting with a wide range of universities, think tanks, and legislative bodies. The organization frequently publishes reports, issues legal amicus briefs, and testifies before state legislatures and federal committees.

History

Founded in 1987, the organization emerged amid debates over faculty governance, curricular reform, and campus politics involving institutions such as Harvard University, Yale University, Princeton University, Columbia University, and University of California, Berkeley. Early leaders drew on networks associated with American Council of Trustees and Alumni, Manhattan Institute, Heritage Foundation, Hoover Institution, and American Enterprise Institute. The group’s activities intersected with controversies at Bowdoin College, University of Michigan, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Rutgers University, and University of Texas at Austin during the 1990s and 2000s. Over time, NAS engaged with state-level policy debates in Texas Legislature, California State Legislature, Florida Legislature, Arizona State Legislature, and New York State Assembly while responding to cultural flashpoints related to cases involving Cornel West, Ward Churchill, Lerone Bennett Jr., and curricular critiques referencing Theodore Sizer and Derek Bok.

Mission and Activities

The stated mission emphasizes academic standards, curricular coherence, and intellectual diversity on campuses including Stanford University, University of Chicago, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Duke University, and Johns Hopkins University. Activities include publishing research reports, organizing conferences with participants from National Endowment for the Humanities, Ford Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, Brookings Institution, and Cato Institute, and filing amicus briefs in cases before courts such as the United States Supreme Court, United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. NAS has produced commentary on programs at Howard University, Spelman College, Morehouse College, Georgetown University, and Boston University and on initiatives connected to Sloan Foundation and Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grants. It convenes panels on topics involving scholars associated with All Souls College, King's College London, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, and international comparisons involving University of Toronto and Australian National University.

Organizational Structure and Funding

The organization is governed by a board of directors and executive officers, drawing board members from faculty and administrators linked to institutions such as Yeshiva University, Wake Forest University, University of Notre Dame, Pepperdine University, and Baylor University. Funding sources have included individual donors, foundations, and gifts occasionally coordinated with entities like Olin Foundation, Scaife Family Foundation, Carnegie Corporation, Lilly Endowment, and private philanthropists with connections to Council for National Policy. Publishing and legal activities have also been supported by grants and contributions reported in tax filings comparable to other nonprofits such as American Association of University Professors, Association of American Universities, and National Education Association. Staffing has included research directors, policy analysts, and regional coordinators who engage with state higher education boards including Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, California State University Board of Trustees, Florida Board of Governors, and New York State Board of Regents.

Positions and Policy Advocacy

NAS advocates for curricular content emphasizing Western canon and classical studies with references to authors and works including Homer, Plato, Aristotle, William Shakespeare, and John Milton, and for curricular structures modeled after classical curricula at University of Chicago and Yale. It has criticized diversity and multiculturalism initiatives advanced by programs at San Francisco State University, University of California, Los Angeles, Rutgers University–Newark, University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign, and University of Michigan–Ann Arbor, while supporting stricter admissions criteria echoed in debates involving Harvard College, Princeton University, Brown University, Columbia College Chicago, and Northwestern University. NAS has taken positions on free speech and academic freedom in cases related to Ivy League campus protests, student activism at University of California, Berkeley, and faculty speech controversies at University of Missouri, often aligning with legal advocacy practiced by organizations such as Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.

Controversies and Criticism

Critics have accused the organization of partisanship and of promoting a conservative agenda, citing connections to conservative groups like Heritage Foundation, American Enterprise Institute, Manhattan Institute, and donors affiliated with Charles Koch networks. Scholars at Columbia University, University of Pennsylvania, New York University, University of Michigan, and University of California, Berkeley have published critiques challenging NAS’s research methods and interpretations of campus climate data. Debates have arisen over its role in controversies involving tenure decisions and speakers invited to campuses such as Noam Chomsky, Cornel West, Jordan Peterson, Ben Shapiro, and Charles Murray, with responses from faculty unions including American Federation of Teachers and American Association of University Professors.

Influence and Reception

The organization has influenced state legislation, university governance debates, and public media coverage in outlets frequently covering higher education policy such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, National Review, and The Chronicle of Higher Education. Its reports have been cited in hearings of committees including the United States Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, the United States House Committee on Education and Labor, and state legislative committees in Florida, Texas, and Arizona. Reception ranges from support among alumni groups and trustees at institutions like Princeton University Alumni Association and Harvard Alumni Association to criticism from faculty senates at University of Massachusetts Amherst and University of California system campuses. The organization continues to be a prominent actor in national debates over curricular content, admissions policy, and campus governance.

Category:Organizations established in 1987 Category:Non-profit organizations based in the United States