National Association of Scholars Launches ‘Argus Project’

Today FIRE received a press release from the National Association of Scholars (NAS) announcing its new "Argus Project," which aims to enlist volunteers to monitor politicized teaching and orientation programs on campuses across the country. According to the release,

NAS will be providing guidance as this team of campus-observers investigates. The Association hopes to bring national attention to particularly egregious cases it learns about, as well as to develop a body of data that illustrates prevailing tendencies in higher education. According to NAS Executive Director Peter Wood, "The Argus volunteers are key to our efforts to expand the movement for reforming higher education. This is a movement founded not just in opposition to political correctness and other academic fads, but also in hope of restoring the integrity of one of our nation's most important institutions."

As attested to by the dozens upon dozens of cases that FIRE has handled since our founding, there are certainly plenty of abuses to watch for on campus. FIRE itself spends a significant amount of time on this very function—especially on campuses that have already demonstrated a lack of concern for liberty. America's higher education establishment is vast, and the greater the number of people involved in advocating for liberty on campus, the sooner we will see a change in the university culture from one of too-frequent censorship and arbitrary administrative decisions to one in which academic freedom and the fundamental rights of students and faculty members are consistently respected.