Blogs

The Indiana Standard

Voice your thoughts, express yourself and make a difference.

Union Board Rejects Tom Woods Proposal Because Students Were Too Well Prepared

By sspaiser, on Mar 05, 2010 In

Last week the Union Board Lectures Committee denied a proposal for a contract covering Tom Woods' $3000 Honorarium to be presented and voted on at last week's Union Board's programming meeting, a group of 16 student programming directors and 4 faculty. However, tonight they were gracious enough to let me have a seven minute open discussion with them in order to help me understand the following statement regarding the feeling of the Lectures Committee toward the Tom Woods event:

They were concerned about the role Union Board would have in the programming aspects of the lecture. Your organization seems to have this planned out very well already and there would little room for Union Board’s help besides the monetary contribution.

In other words, we were too well prepared. The Board members said that the purpose of the Union Board programmers is to help student groups who are unable to plan events have them planned for them. Furthermore, they claimed that YAL had this event "planned to a tee," and that this deemed the Board irrelevant.

Update from Indiana: Tom Woods Rejected AGAIN on a 2nd Lame Excuse

By Bonnie Kristian, on Mar 05, 2010 In

I've posted here before about Indiana University-Bloomington's ridiculous rejection of Dr. Tom Woods on the excuse that he lacked "sufficient academic credibility" -- despite his degrees from Harvard and Columbia, authorship of NYT bestsellers, and position as a senior scholar at the Mises Institute.

Since then, YAL at IU-B has been working hard to raise the funds necessary to bring Woods to campus on their own. For a while, it looked as if the university might be backing down. Not anymore. As the club's president, Sam Spaiser, now explains, the lectures board denied a second request on the grounds that the club was "too prepared":

The fact that we came prepared, had already contacted Woods and secured a date, proposed a schedule for the event, and selected (although not booked) a room, this caused the Lectures Committee to feel left out of the process.

Too well prepared? Talk about perverse incentives. At any rate, YAL at IU-B is still committed to bringing Tom Woods to campus. And you can help!

Alum R. Emmett Tyrrell Shares His Story of Liberal Double Standards at IU

By Emily Cochran, on Feb 11, 2010 In

Indiana University alum and founder of the American Spectator, R. Emmett Tyrrell, shares his story of fighting leftist double standards in a column for the Patriot Post.

Tyrrell explains that when members of a protest movement, such as environmentalists, are disorderly in a Senator’s office, liberals remain “tranquil,” as exemplified when protestors disrupted Senator Joe Lieberman’s office in 2009, Representative Frank Riggs’ office in 1997, or any of the many instances when Michael Moore bombards a congressional office with cameras and microphones.

But when conservative activist James O’Keefe disrupted Senator Mary Landrieu’s office, in what one could argue was similar fashion to Michael Moore’s quests to expose the truth, all hell broke loose and he was charged with federal crimes. This is not to say whether what O’Keefe did was wrong or right -- we still don’t know all the facts -- but this is just one example of the liberal double standard.

Mr. Tyrrell recognized this liberal double standard as a college student and wanted to expose it for what it was.

Update on Bringing Tom Woods to IU Bloomington

By sspaiser, on Feb 05, 2010 In

Hey Everyone,

This is Sam Spaiser, President of Young Americans For Liberty at IU Bloomington. I'd just like to give you all an update from "ground zero." First off, we've raised $1829.86 so far!!! That's nearly half of the $4000 we need to bring Tom Woods to campus. The group has been thrilled with the support that fellow liberty-minded individuals have given us over the past week.

However, we need your support NOW more than ever! We've been in correspondence with Tom Woods, and are working together, but at this time I can't release any more information about that.

This is something that MUST be seen through to the end. A powerful act of liberty on one campus is something that can domino to college campuses all across the country; a polar-opposite of the communism domino effect, so to speak. This MUST end in a great triumph for the cause of liberty. The day that Tom Woods speaks his first words over the PA system in an overfilled auditorium, the IU campus will shake from the quakes of freedom which will bring the establishment crashing to the ground!

Important Update: IU Reformers Are Winning

By Abigail Alger, on Feb 05, 2010 In

An exciting weekend update: the Young Americans for Liberty at Indiana University-Bloomington have raised 40% of the $4000 needed to bring Dr. Thomas Woods to campus...and that's thanks to supporters of campus reform like you.

For the Indianapolis Star story about this outrag e, the IU Union Board -- which refused Dr. Woods -- also refused to comment, and the IU administration distanced itself from the board and its decisions.

Know what that means? Reformers are winning.

And you can help secure the victory. Click here to help the IU Young Americans for Liberty bring Dr. Woods to speak.

Show IU you support free thought (and free markets!) on America's campuses -- not intellectual conformity. Then share this story with freedom-minded people you know.Let's send a message to every American college that we will not tolerate censorship of free market principles. You know schools need to hear it.

Update: Standing Up for Free Thought, and the Free Market, at Indiana University

By Abigail Alger, on Feb 03, 2010 In

The Indiana University Young Americans for Liberty are fighting back against gross intellectual bias and bureaucratic power plays to bring free thought, and a free market thinker, to campus.

IU's Union Board Lecture Commitee turned down Dr. Thomas Woods as a campus lecturer for lacking "sufficient academic credibility" -- in the opinion of the IU Economics Department. This is, of course, the Thomas Woods who was educated at Columbia and Harvard, who works as a Mises Institute senior scholar, and who wrote the New York Times bestseller Meltdown: A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse.

To put it simply: it's Dr. Woods' ideas, not his credentials, that IU doesn't like.

As the Lectures Committee chairwoman wrote to the Young Americans for Liberty:

I'm very sorry but I won't be working to bring Tom Woods. I don't believe his [sic] has sufficient academic credibility, on the basis of some discussion with Economics professors. However, the economy is clearly an issue that a lot of students care a great deal about. Perhaps our two groups could work together to put on a panel discussion of the financial crisis, but IU professors.

And today the new chair made it clear she had no interest in explaining things either. In a phone interview, she said she didn't know the budget (past or present), she didn't know the list of this year's speakers, and she didn't know the specific criteria for bringing speakers to campus.

Wow.

So the IU Young Americans for Liberty are now fundraising to bring Dr. Woods to campus on their own. They've raised more than one-third of what they need to bring Dr. Woods to IU.

You can help! Click here to show IU you want free thought and free markets on America's campuses -- not intellectual conformity. Then share this story with free-minded people you know. Don't let IU get away with ignoring ideas they simply don't like!

Press Release: Indiana University Refuses Equal Funding for Free Market Speaker

By Bonnie Kristian, on Feb 03, 2010 In

UPDATE: To continue to help raise funds to bring Tom Woods to speak at Indiana University, a press release has gone out on behalf of IU's YAL chapter. Here's the text of the release; please share it with any bloggers or members of the media who might be able to give this ridiculous situation some attention! (And don't forget to donate to the chapter's fund for Woods' speaker's fee!)

ARLINGTON, VA -- The Economics Department and Indiana Memorial Union Board Lectures Committee of Indiana University-Bloomington refused to host Mises Institute senior scholar and economist Dr. Thomas E. Woods, Jr. on campus, citing the blatantly false excuse that Woods, a graduate of Harvard and Columbia and a New York Times bestselling author, lacked "sufficient academic credibility."

The Young Americans for Liberty chapter whose request to host Woods was denied is fighting back against this gross academic bias and power play with the assistance of CampusReform.org, a website for conservative and libertarian student activists, and the national Young Americans for Liberty organization.

Sam Spaiser, president of the IU Young Americans for Liberty group, has taken swift action to bring Woods to IU with or without the school's assistance. "It is clear that the Lectures Board rejected Woods based on philosophical differences, not his lack of credibility," he said. "This is a ridiculous decision based on false pretenses and amounts to nothing more than ideological injustice."

Update: Tom Woods comments on rejection from IU; Alumni and current students outraged

By Bonnie Kristian, on Feb 01, 2010 In

Several days ago we shared an article from the Indiana Standard, the independent conservative/libertarian student newspaper at Indiana University. As reported there, Indiana University refused to host Dr. Thomas Woods on campus on the lame excuse that he doesn't have "sufficient academic credibility."

Tom Woods, it's worth noting, has academic credentials which include undergrad at Harvard, a doctorate from Columbia, success on the New York Times bestseller list, and a position as Senior Scholar at the Mises Institute. The excuse IU gave could be called "flimsy" at best.

Woods himself agreed and, with his typical wit, commented: "If it's my academic credentials they question, anyone can judge for himself at TomWoods.com. But from their point of view I'm surely uncredentialed: unlike other speakers they might consider, I haven't wrecked any economies."

Though he hasn't wrecked any economies, Woods nonetheless seems to make the IU economics department nervous.

Help Bring Tom Woods to Indiana University-Bloomington

By sspaiser, on Jan 29, 2010 In

For those of you who don't know me, my name is Sam Spaiser and I'm the President of Young Americans For Liberty at Indiana University Bloomington.

For the latest print edition of the Indiana Standard, a new conservative/libertarian newspaper started by Danny Orthwein and Spenser Burns, Trent Morton wrote an article titled "Economics Department Snuffs Tom Woods."

It's about how the IU Bloomington chapter of Young Americans For Liberty tried to bring Dr. Thomas Woods to campus through the Union Lecture Board Committee, which brings speakers like Richard Dawkins and John Edwards, speakers who cost anywhere from five to ten times as much as Woods does.

Indiana University: $35,000 for Edwards, Nothing for Free Market Thinkers

By Emily Cochran, on Jan 27, 2010 In

Read this important article from The Indiana Standard, a conservative paper, which tells how Indiana University refused to bring a free-market thinker to campus...after spending $35,000 to host now-disgraced John Edwards. Click here to learn how to expose and combat speaker bias at your school.

“I don’t believe his(sic) has sufficient academic credibility, on the basis of some discussion with Economics professors.”

That came from a person actively involved with Indiana University’s guest lecture program following a campus organization’s request to invite a speaker to the University. The person lacking the “sufficient academic credibility” is a man named Thomas Woods whose academic pedigree features undergraduate study at Harvard and doctoral completion at Columbia. Granted, Dr. Thomas Woods is not a professor at any university and fancy Ivy League degrees hardly suffice as academic credentials to guest lecture at a top-tier University such as Indiana, but why would the Indiana University Department of Economics professors and the Indiana University Union Board Lectures Committee refuse to host a two-time New York Times bestselling author and Mises Institute Senior Scholar?

The answer to that question may be based on the motivating ideology behind his published works, but even more so based on the history of the Mises Institute and constantly conflicting schools of economic thought.

Campus Reform: Indiana University - Bloomington