Alumni Groups Battle Threats to Free Speech

Furious at their alma maters’ embrace of DEI, suppression of free speech, hot-housing antisemitic bigotry, and so much more, college alumni are increasingly organizing and publicly challenging the administrations and suppliant boards of America’s leading universities. An excellent overview of this graduates-push-back effort can be found in John Murawski’s recent RealClearInvestigations report. Much of it focuses on the affiliates of the expanding Alumni Free Speech Alliance (AFSA), the umbrella group consisting of 27 independent organizations battling riots, gag rules, and the suppression of academic freedom that have become integral to their woke academies.

As the name says, sometimes they do indeed form alliances. Last week, a trio of Virginia-based AFSA members — Virginia Military Institute’s The Cadet Foundation, University of Virginia’s The Jefferson Council (TJR), and Washington and Lee University’s The Generals Redoubt (TGR) — announced in a joint statement they are “sounding the alarm on disturbing efforts by members of the Virginia House and Senate to pressure” VMI’s Board of Visitors “into granting Superintendent Maj. Gen. Cedric Wins a new four-year contract, despite serious allegations of impropriety.” The AFSA affiliates are demanding “an independent investigation into the unethical and potentially unlawful actions of those involved.”

About the Author

Jack Fowler

Jack Fowler is a contributing editor at National Review and a senior philanthropy consultant at American Philanthropic.

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Furious at their alma maters’ embrace of DEI, suppression of free speech, hot-housing antisemitic bigotry, and so much more, college alumni are increasingly organizing and publicly challenging the administrations and suppliant boards of America’s leading universities. An excellent overview of this graduates-push-back effort can be found in John Murawski’s recent RealClearInvestigations report. Much of it focuses on the affiliates of the expanding Alumni Free Speech Alliance (AFSA), the umbrella group consisting of 27 independent organizations battling riots, gag rules, and the suppression of academic freedom that have become integral to their woke academies.

As the name says, sometimes they do indeed form alliances. Last week, a trio of Virginia-based AFSA members — Virginia Military Institute’s The Cadet Foundation, University of Virginia’s The Jefferson Council (TJR), and Washington and Lee University’s The Generals Redoubt (TGR) — announced in a joint statement they are “sounding the alarm on disturbing efforts by members of the Virginia House and Senate to pressure” VMI’s Board of Visitors “into granting Superintendent Maj. Gen. Cedric Wins a new four-year contract, despite serious allegations of impropriety.” The AFSA affiliates are demanding “an independent investigation into the unethical and potentially unlawful actions of those involved.”