Mellon Foundation-Backed AAUP Organization Seeks to Undermine Civics Schools

Mellon Foundation-Backed AAUP Organization Seeks to Undermine Civics Schools

This story is shocking. It reveals that the left despises the idea of viewpoint diversity and the promotion of civics education, something the country needs more of, desperately.

From City Journal:

The Mellon Foundation Is Funding a Resistance Against Civics Schools

At the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), one of the influential professional associations for professors, a center on “academic freedom” is seeking to undermine the many newly created schools of civic leadership.

Over the past half-decade, dozens of universities have created “Civics Centers,” such as the University of Florida’s Hamilton School for Classical and Civic Education and UT Austin’s School of Civic Leadership, which aim to encourage viewpoint diversity and teach a classically oriented curriculum. Often backed by Republican legislatures, these centers have become a hallmark of higher education reform.

In a recording that I obtained, Isaac Kamola—the director of the AAUP’s Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom (CDAF)—repeatedly states his desire to delegitimize the upstart civic centers.

“I would really love to see kind of a robust research project on these right-wing centers and individuals—like, naming and shaming and discrediting and undermining the legitimacy,” Kamola said during the meeting (around the 1:34:50 mark). “I would love to strategically map who these f—ers are, and figure out what the weaknesses are, and design a research agenda that just goes through them and tries to knock them out.”

Through a public records request, I have acquired emails sent to a CDAF program fellow, which include links to agendas, brainstorming documents, grant records, and meeting audio recordings. The documents reveal the group’s idiosyncratic understanding of academic freedom. They also reveal how the CDAF’s funder, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, has bankrolled a sprawling public-relations operation to block conservative efforts to reform higher education.

Created in 2024, the CDAF owes its existence to a $1.5 million grant from the Mellon Foundation. Per the center’s grant proposal, CDAF was designed to launch a public-relations campaign defending academic freedom. In practice, it seems to prioritize institutional autonomy above all—including, of course, viewpoint diversity.

CDAF reserves special ire for “civics centers” like the University of Florida’s Hamilton School. In a brainstorming document, Kamola identifies the centers as a key target. “Bring together faculty from different campuses that have dark money-funded, or legislature-imposed, ‘free enterprise,’ ‘civics,’ or other imposed centers,” the document reads.

In a meeting, Kamola expanded on the idea. “If we’re thinking about a five-year research agenda, I think unmasking, naming, and shaming, and just increasing the political costs and decreasing the legitimacy of these centers is going to be really important,” he said.

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