Collegiate Network

The Collegiate Network (CN) is a non-profit tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization that provides financial and technical assistance to student editors and writers of roughly 100 independent, conservative and libertarian publications at leading colleges and universities around the United States. The CN estimates that member publications have a combined annual distribution of more than two million. Since 1995, the CN has been administered by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI), headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware.

According to its web site, the CN "focuses public awareness on the politicization of American college and university classrooms, curricula, student life, and the resulting decline of educational standards." Newspapers and journals in the CN regularly call attention to what they interpret as corruption and hypocrisy in campus administrations' and student groups' policies, argue in favor of free speech in liberal education, encourage discussion and debate, and train students in the principles and practices of journalism.

In 1979, the Institute For Educational Affairs (IEA) responded to the request of two University of Chicago students for start-up funding for a new conservative newspaper, Counterpoint. By 1980, the grant program had been expanded and named the Collegiate Network, and by 1983, under the continuing administration of the IEA, had added both internships and persistent operating grants for conservative campus newspapers. In 1990, the Madison Center for Educational Affairs merged with the IEA to maintain funding for what had expanded to 57 conservative student publications. The Intercollegiate Studies Institute took over operations in 1995 and has since administered the CN from Wilmington, Delaware.

The CN is currently a voluntary association of almost 100 independent publications. CN support allows these publications to reduce or eliminate reliance on student government approval and constraint by faculty "oversight boards," thus resulting in increased independence which may be reflected in the publication's editorial "voice". The Columbia Journalism Review noted that the "Collegiate Network papers make a significant contribution to the journalism of their day." The New York Times,Wall Street Journal,Boston Globe, and Los Angeles Times have also cited the Collegiate Network as the leader in helping nascent alternative student papers become influential campus publications.

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