March 3 and 4, 2007
Omni Shoreham Hotel
2500 Calvert Street, NW Washington, DC

REGISTER TODAY! Contact Stephanie Knudson at [email protected] or at 323-556-2550, ext. 209.

David Horowitz and Students for Academic Freedom are hosting their second annual Academic Freedom Conference on March 3 and 4, 2007, at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, DC, following the conclusion of CPAC. Registration is FREE for students, non-profit employees, Hill staffers, educators, and interns!

This event will include a special reception with Senator Rick Santorum and David Horowitz on the evening of Saturday, March 3, and a morning breakfast, panels, and lunch debate, on Sunday, March 4. When making your CPAC reservations, please plan to stay over through Sunday so you can attend this special event (CPAC hotel rates will apply though Saturday night for students attending this conference).

At the First National Academic Freedom Conference last year, students, educators, legislators, and non-profit leaders came together to examine the growing crisis of politicization occurring in America’s K-12 schools and universities. In the months since that first historic conference, Students for Academic Freedom has achieved several substantial victories. A select committee of the Pennsylvania State Legislature found after a year-long process of hearings that not a single campus in the state provided student-specific academic freedom rights and grievance procedures. Even before the report was officially released, two major state campuses, Pennsylvania State University and Temple University, took measures to remedy this deficiency by adopting new policies which for the first time will give their students an official claim to academic freedom and will provide grievance machinery if their rights are violated.

This academic freedom policy at Penn State now applies specifically to students:

Penn State Policy HR 64: It is not the function of a faculty member in a democracy to indoctrinate his/her students with ready-made conclusions on controversial subjects. The faculty member is expected to train students to think for themselves, and to provide them access to those materials which they need if they are to think intelligently. Hence in giving instruction upon controversial matters the faculty member is expected to be of a fair and judicial mind, and to set forth justly, without supersession or innuendo, the divergent opinions of other investigators.

Despite these victories for our cause, grave abuses of academic freedom continue to abound on college campuses. Discussing why these abuses continue to take place and how they can be combated will be the key theme of this year’s conference.  

The conference will feature many exciting speakers and events including Senator Rick Santorum and a debate between SAF Chairman David Horowitz and American Association of University Professors President Cary Nelson on what is probably the most important campus issue of the day – students’ academic freedom.  

The conference will also feature student and Marine corporal Matthew Sanchez who took on the issue of anti-military bias at Columbia University after he was harassed and called a “baby killer” by his fellow students for proudly serving in the Corps.   

In an effort to make it possible for students and supporters from across the nation to attend, we are holding this year’s conference directly following the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) which takes place each winter in Washington, DC.   

Registration is FREE for students, non-profit employees, Hill staffers, educators, and interns! Registration for general public is $150.00.

Student hotel rates are available at the Omni Shoreham Hotel and the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel.  Please contact the hotels directly for reservations.  Omni Shoreham at (202) 234-0700 and the Marriott at (202) 328-2983.  For updated Conference information visit www.studentsforacademicfreedom.org .

For more information or to register for this event, please contact Stephanie Knudson at [email protected] or at 323-556-2550, ext. 209.

Conference Schedule
note: times and speakers are subject to change

Saturday, March 3, 2007
5:30 pm Reception 

Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA)
David Horowitz
Book Signing: Indoctrination U.

Sunday, March 4, 2007

9:00am Panel 1: Faculty and Administration Harassment of Students

Moderator: Morton Blackwell, Leadership Institute 
Matt Farrar, Florida State University
Matt Sanchez, Columbia University
Michael Abdurakhmanov, Pace University
Jason Walter, Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania
Logan Fisher, Temple University

10:30am Panel 2: Classroom Indoctrination: What Can We Do?  

Moderator: Pennsylvania Rep. Gib Armstrong
Nate Walton, Bates College
Steve Miller, Duke University
Todd Taylor, Penn State University
Tom Robins, College Republican National Committee

12:00-1:30pm  Lunch Debate: Political Indoctrination and Harassment on Campus: Is There a Problem? 

Moderator: Scott Smallwood, Chronicle of Higher Education 
David Horowitz, Chairman, Students for Academic Freedom
Cary Nelson, President, American Association of University Professors

1:30pm Dismissal