Collegiate Network Celebrates 25 Years of Conservative Impact
by Mary Rettig
December 7, 2004
(AgapePress) - A major supporter of conservative voices on college campuses is turning 25. The Collegiate Network, or CN, is a group of about 87 college newspapers designed to fight liberal bias found at many universities, which it has been doing for a quarter century now.CN's Sarah Longwell says the group has seen lots of highlights and milestones during the past 25 years, but not all of them are good. She recalls one incident, some years ago when "liberal radicals set a fire and were burning barrels and barrels of the Cornell Review and the police had to come," she says.
And Longwell notes that similar things have happened at Michigan and on other campuses across the U.S. "Really," she says, "every year there's something new -- there are new battles to be fought."
But according to the CN representative, the biggest thing that has happened to the group in its quarter century of existence is the way the network has grown from just a few people in the beginning to almost 90 collegiate newspapers around the United States today. At this rate, she believes it is likely CN will reach or even exceed a total membership of 100 publications next year.
And CN has grown not only in size, but in influence. Longwell says looking at the conservative group's alumni list gives an idea of the impact the group has had over the years, as well as the impact it is continuing to make, even beyond the nation's college campuses.
"If you look at Ann Coulter, Laura Ingraham, Dinesh D'Souza, Rich Lowry, most of the people who write for the Weekly Standard, many of the people who write for National Review -- these are all alumni of our program," Longwell says. "These are all people who wrote or started their own campus publication. We gave them the tools they needed to cultivate their craft of journalism and they've become powerhouses."
According to Longwell, these prominent conservatives are among the many CN alumni who have gone from speaking out on their college campuses to being on the frontlines in the battle against liberal media bias. She believes that kind of influence has really taken hold in American public debate, particularly with the advent of more conservative media outlets in recent years.
