Friday, April 2, 2021

Is Stanford Trying to Cut Ties with the Hoover Institution?

Here is more from The Daily Wire:

Earlier this month, a group of Stanford University professors presented and published a memo accusing Hoover Institution fellows of being conservative, which they are, but argued they needed to be censured because the majority of the Stanford community disagreed with their views.

It appears the professors’ attempt to silence the Hoover fellows has failed, according to The Federalist.

“Despite a months-long campaign of demonization directed at Victor Davis Hanson, Niall Ferguson, and Scott Atlas — amplified with support from The Stanford Daily — the assault ended without condemnation of the trio or Hoover,” the outlet reported.

As the three fellows wrote last week, Stanford’s president, provost, and former provost defended the think tank and academic freedom in general.

Instead of the public condemnation and silencing demanded by the Stanford professors, Provost Persis Drell and Hoover Institute director Condoleezza Rice were asked to “to present a report to the body later this year about ‘increasing interaction’ between the university and the think tank,” The Federalist reported.

 

Here is the presentation by professors Joshua Landy, Stephen Monismith, David Palumbo-Liu, and David Spiegel.

The Daily Wire notes that this is not the first time that Stanford has attempted to cut ties with Hoover.  Here is a New York Times piece from 1983 entitled "Stanford Liberals Question School's Tie to Hoover Institution."

The Federalist notes that Hoover, which was initially founded in 1919 as a library by Stanford alumnus Herbert Hoover, has a $450 million endowment and a $50 million annual budget.

It also notes that although Hoover is a part of Stanford, it has an independent board of overseers.

Here is a piece by Stanford Political Journal entitled "100 Years of Hoover: A History of Stanford's Decades-Long Debate Over the Hoover Institution."