NAS Resources
In addition to our regular work producing research reports, articles, statements, press releases, webinars, podcasts, and the like, the NAS has also over the years created practical resources for scholars and concerned citizens to take matters into their own hands. That is, documents and other materials with which interested parties may educate themselves on the most important issues facing American higher education; petition their legislators and school boards to enact critical reforms; and, most recently, defend themselves or others against attacks on academic freedom and freedom of expression.
What follows is a list of said resources, which we hope will be a valuable aid to those who need them or know someone who does.
This page is currently in a prototype form and will be updated in content and structure at a later date.
Active Investigations
Foreign Funds Database
We're keeping track of foreign donations to American universities. Use our database to discover foreign gifts to your university.
How Many Confucius Institutes Are in the United States?
We're keeping track of all Confucius Institutes in the United States, including those that remain open, those that closed, and those that have announced their closing.
How Many Confucius Institutes Are in the United States?
Cracking Down on Illegal Ties to China
A repository of 46 American professors, higher ed administrators, students, and government researchers who have been investigated or charged for illegal ties to China.
Cracking Down on Illegal Ties to China
Tracking Foreign Aid to American Higher Education
We are tracking unreported funds from universities. Our most recent investigation found that Texas A&M failed to report $100 million in Russian and Qatari funds.
Download the Texas A&M Foreign Gift Spreadsheet
Tracking "Cancel Culture" in Higher Education
A repository of 128 administrators, professors, and students who have been "canceled" for expressing views deemed unacceptable by higher education ideologues.
Tracking "Cancel Culture" in Higher Education
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion on Campus
A collection of NAS and other organizations' research on DEI at institutions, within states, and across America.
Higher Ed Leadership Takes on Racism
Is your institution one of the 300+ that have published statements condemning "systemic racism" and promising an "anti-racist" future? Click to find out.
Higher Ed Leadership Takes on Racism
Policy Briefs
We at the NAS often receive inquiries from members and other interested parties along the lines of, "What does NAS think about ____ ?" While we have done work on many issues facing higher education, our thoughts are often scattered between various research reports, articles, webinars, podcasts, etc. Policy briefs are a handy one-stop-shop for our basic stance on a particular issue. Click the links below to download PDF files of our first five briefs—more to come.
Confucius Institutes
Confucius Institutes (CIs) are, ostensibly, Chinese language and culture centers hosted by universities outside of the People’s Republic of China. Just five years ago, there were over 100 CIs in the United States alone. However, the NAS discovered through our ground-breaking research that CIs and their K-12 counterpart, Confucius Classrooms, actually operate as Chinese Communist Party propaganda and espionage hubs. Click below to read more.
Download our Confucius Institutes Policy Brief
Title IX
Title IX was originally passed as part of the Education Amendments of 1972 to create equal access for women in colleagiate sports. Title IX offices have since morphed into bureaucratic sex monitors that adjudicate sexual misconduct allegations with little or no legal experience, often with complete disregard for the basic principles of justice. How did we get here, and what can be done? Click below to read more.
Download our Title IX Policy Brief
Freedom to Learn and Depoliticizing Higher Education
NAS has proffered Freedom to Learn, a series of amendments to the Higher Education Act of 1965 (HEA) that would reform higher education finances, guarantee liberty and equal opportunity, and reorient America’s colleges to serve America’s national interest. Click below to read more.
Download our Freedom to Learn and Depoliticizing Higher Education Policy Brief
Student Debt & "Administrative Bloat"
College costs have more than doubled in the last 40 years. Many students now borrow large amounts of money and incur unmanageable debt. Meanwhile, bloated university bureaucracies continue to hire expensive administrators and staff for jobs which do little if anything to improve classroom teaching. Student debt pays for administrators’ salaries; this amounts to a massive wealth transfer away from America’s middle-class families into the hands of dysfunctional higher education bureaucracies. Click below to read more.
Download our Student Debt & "Administrative Bloat" Policy Brief
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) are a set of high school science standards that have been adopted by 20 states plus the District of Columbia and have served as a basis for changes to science education standards in an additional 24 states. The problem is, they're mediocre at best and do an immense disservice to American students. Our children deserve a rigorous, substantive science education rather than the watered-down, activist-training-infused "education" they receive through the NGSS. Click below to read more.
Download our Next Generation Science Standards Policy Brief
When Cancel Culture Comes: Resources for Scholars, Administrators, and Students
Cancel culture is merciless, and it moves at light speed. If you or someone you know are facing cancellation, click here for downloadable resources.
Download an Excel chart of academic freedom organizations.
Download Word document of academic freedom organizations.
Countering 1619 Project History Curricula
An example letter from NAS Board Member Jay Bergman to the superintendent of Newington schools on the dangers of 1619 Project-inspired history curricula in K-12 education, along with downloadable template letters to send to your own local school boards and local legislators.
Toolkits
Countering Chinese Soft Power: An Updated Toolkit for Concerned Citizens
An updated toolkit for citizens concerned about the presence of Confucius Institutes in the United States. Use this toolkit to send letters to college presidents and your government representatives.
Title IX Toolkit
For your reference: the basics on the history of Title IX, how it is used today, and why we seek reform.
Neo-Segregation Toolkit
Recommended steps and resources that NAS members can take to push back against the rise of neo-segregation on American campuses.
Free to Speak: A Toolkit for Reforming the Higher Education Act
Do you want to protect free thought on campus? Help NAS reform the Higher Education Act by using the tools in this handy toolkit!
Toolkit on the Politicization of the College Board
How did the College Board become so thoroughly politicized? What else can be done to ensure that high school students receive an unbiased, rigorous education?
Toolkit: Making Science Reproducible
A citizen's guide to the science education, funding, and reform.
Academic Freedom Statements
Editor’s Note: In 2023, academic groups began to issue a new series of statements of principles of academic freedom. These academic groups responded to the efforts by a new generation of radical academics to curtail academic freedom, in theory and in practice. The National Association of Scholars (NAS) believes that it will be useful to provide a webpage for education reformers that collates links to these statements.
The new statements of academic freedom build on more than a century of previous statements of academic freedom. Readers should also look at our Charting Academic Freedom: 103 Years of Debates, which lists and compares fourteen published statements on academic freedom from the 1915 Declaration of Principles from the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). to the April 29, 2017 Statement of Principles: Free Expression on Campuses issued by Students for Free Expression.
NAS has not officially endorsed any of these statements. We urge readers interested in the NAS’ own view on academic freedom to look at our statement The Architecture of Intellectual Freedom (2016). Although we do not endorse these statements, we believe they are valuable attempts to restore the culture and institutions of academic freedom to America’s institutions of higher education.
We will expand this webpage to include new statements of academic freedom. Please contact us ([email protected]) to tell us about new statements that we should include.
- Bipartisan Policy Center, Campus Free Expression: A New Roadmap
- Cornell Free Speech Alliance, Lifting The Fog: Restoring Academic Freedom & Free Expression At Cornell University
- Institute for Citizens and Scholars, Campus Call for Free Expression
- James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions, Princeton Principles for a Campus Culture of Free Inquiry