Who We Are

The California Association of Scholars is an organization devoted to reform in higher  

education.  An affiliate of the National Association of Scholars, it is composed of 

professors, graduate students, college administrators and trustees, and independent

scholars committed to rational discourse as the foundation of academic life in a free

and democratic society.  The CAS works to strengthen the integrity of scholarship

and teaching, persuaded that only through an informed understanding of the Western

intellectual heritage and of the realities of the contemporary world can citizen and

scholar be equipped to sustain our civilization's achievements. In light of these

objectives, we are deeply concerned about perspectives within the academy that

reflexively denigrate the values and institutions of our society. Because such

tendencies are often dogmatic in character and indifferent to both logic and evidence,

they undermine the basis for coherent scholarly dialogue.  We encourage an

assertiveness among academics who value reason and an open intellectual life.

The California Association of Scholars seeks to:

  * affirm the centrality of academic freedom to the integrity of university life and

     strengthen the right to teach and learn in an environment free of politicization

     and coercion;

  * nourish the free exchange of ideas and the virtues of tolerance as essential to the

     pursuit of truth and the maintenance of civility;

  * build and sustain an academic leadership dedicated to the idea of reasoned and

     responsible scholarship;

  * maintain intellectual standards in research and teaching, and resist quotas and other

     numerically based formulas as divisive and inequitable strategies for faculty

     recruitment and student admissions;

Issues That Concern Us:

  * Politicization of scholarship and teaching, and the substitution of social reform for

     the pursuit of knowledge;

  * Dogmatic hostility to Western civilization, and reflexive use of non-Western 

     cultures as a means of denouncing American society;

  * Inappropriate use of sexual, racial, and other nonscholarly criteria in selecting

     works to be studied, and the associated denigration of great literary and artistic

     works;

  * Absence of core curricula or other requirements ensuring a well-rounded

     education, and their replacement by unscholarly curricular innovations that lack

     substance and intellectual depth;

  * Use of sexual, racial, or other criteria unrelated to merit in hiring, in promotion,

     and in student recruitment, and the resulting campus polarization;

  * Use of noncurricular resources such as orientations and residential life programs to

     impose political and ideological conformity on student life;

  * Unfair treatment of teachers and students suspected of holding "politically

     incorrect" views, and its obverse, the frequent placation of activists by

     administrators who refuse to enforce campus regulations;

  * The impact of lowered academic standards in colleges and universities on

     education at lower levels, and the resulting inadequate preparation of high school

     graduates for  college work.