Published March 20, 2015: by Mary Grabar We are happy to announce that after a nearly two-year long process Dissident Prof has been awarded status by the IRS as a 501(c) (3) tax-exempt charitable organization.
I am delighted to quote from the IRS letter:
“Dear Applicant,
“We are pleased to inform you that upon review of your application for tax exempt status we have determined that you are exempt from Federal income tax under section 501 (c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Contributions to you are deductible under section 170 of the Code. You are also qualified to receive tax deductible bequests, devises, transfers or gifts under section 2055, 2106 or 2522 of the Code. . . .
“We determined that you are a public charity under the Code section(s) listed in the heading of this letter.”
For contributors’ information:
Public Charity Status: 170 (b) (1) (A) (vi)
Effective Date of Exemption: February 29, 2012
(I am told that any contributions made after the “Effective Date of Exemption” are tax deductible. Please note as you file your 2014 returns!)
It was a difficult and expensive process, and one that took a lot of time and energy.
But now we are ready to dedicate our energies to “resisting the re-education of America” by continuing to post articles, offer talks, and publish guidebooks. If you are able, I hope you will consider making a tax-deductible contribution.
With your help, Dissident Prof will be able to:
Continue keeping you up to date on the latest efforts to “re-educate Americans” through K-12 and university education in blog posts.
Expand the website to feature more articles and contributors.
Support and publish more research and writing by adjunct college instructors.
Publish reports on what is going on in education.
Continue to publish guidebooks on aspects of education corruption, indoctrination, and the treatment of conservative and traditionally minded faculty members.
Continue to speak to groups about such issues as Common Core, radicals in education, and discrimination against conservatives on college campuses.
The History of Dissident Prof: Dissident Prof started with an idea I had back in early 2011, when, like many of my like-minded colleagues, I was finding myself excluded from consideration for a full-time tenure track teaching position. In my field, English, I did not have a chance because I love literature and my country, and respect the Western scholarly tradition.
I hired a web designer and put up the site, not really knowing where it would go, but hoping to offer a platform for other professors and students, as well. I sent out an announcement to readers of my articles and columns, and the response was very encouraging.
Then, one of my readers asked where he could send a contribution. I was heartened when I went to the post office and opened his envelope to find a contribution that I thought was very generous—especially given that it was sent to a stranger across the country for a brand new website. What an article of faith! So I decided to put up a contribution box. Every donation, no matter the size, along with the letters and messages, encouraged me to keep going on a task that took many, many hours.
I applied for a grant from a foundation with the help of a colleague and board member. That grant helped us to continue the development of the website, and pay small honoraria to contributors of blog posts. I entered the world of publishing with a guidebook on what students are asked to read as admirable rhetoric, Barack Obama’s Cairo speech; on the influence on education of terrorist professor Bill Ayers; and a collection of essays that tell the story of being an “exiled” conservative professor.
I decided to apply for non-profit status, so contributors would be able to write off donations. And believe me, conservatives are far outgunned when it comes to having non-profit institutions dealing with education, as we know by the Bill Gates-funded Common Core-pushing agencies, on-campus peace and social justice centers, and radical curriculum companies like the [Howard] Zinn Education Project and Rethinking History. I recruited three board members who fulfilled the duties of board membership, but also helped with by-laws, the IRS filings, and grant applications. I can’t thank them enough for their volunteer efforts. Their names and short bios appear below.
When I started, I was teaching at Emory University in the former Program in American Democracy and Citizenship. I am now a resident fellow at the Alexander Hamilton Institute for the Study of Western Civilization in Clinton, New York. I live in a place offering an opportunity to continue Dissident Prof, write articles and columns on education, and continue the study of George S. Schuyler, the subject of my month-long Bakwin Research Fellowship here in 2011. I am blessed to be among colleagues who teach at Hamilton College, another resident fellow, visiting scholars, affiliated Hamilton College students, and community members who take classes and attend lectures—all fighting to preserve scholarship in the Western tradition, and that means the pursuit of truth, the freedom of expression, and respect for the past.
From the lovely mansion on the Clinton village square I hope to expand the efforts of Dissident Prof to include more dissident professors and students and do our part in the overwhelming task of resisting the re-education of America. I was warned that starting a non-profit such as this would take more time and energy that I could imagine. The source was correct.
But as someone who was brought to these shores by parents escaping a communist country, I think it’s worth it
Thank You to Dissident Prof Board Members: Many, many thanks go to my board members who volunteered to help me through the process.
They are:
Ann Hartle, President. Ann Hartle earned her Ph.D. in philosophy at the Graduate Center of the City of New York in 1976. She has been teaching philosophy at Emory University since 1982, and has published several books and many articles on topics in the history of philosophy.
Jane Robbins, Vice-President. Jane Robbins is a Senior Fellow with the American Principles Project in Washington, D.C., and works on education policy. A graduate of the Harvard Law School, she has practiced law and has taught legal writing in the past.
Herb Garner, Treasurer. After running Garner Construction Company, Inc., and H & H Contractors, Inc., for 21 years, Herb Garner became a financial planner and branch office manager for Investors Financial Group, and later, Sun America Securities. He also worked in a consulting position as a referral representative with Invest Financial Corporation. He is now retired.
What other dissidents and supporters are saying about Dissident Prof:
Dissident Prof is an exceedingly rare thing in the world of contemporary higher education, a world in which “microaggressions,” and “checking one’s privilege,” and a humourless belief in the ubiquity of racism and sexism are all taken seriously: it is a website that is unashamedly sane and conservative. Under the direction of the splendid Mary Grabar, who has had personal experience of “liberal” intolerance, Dissident Prof is utterly unafraid to publicise and mock fashionable absurdities or worse. Long may it flourish! Malcolm Allen, Professor of English, University of Wisconsin-Fox Valley.
In the leftist wasteland that constitutes higher education, there is a small but hardy underground. Dissident Prof is their voice. If you want to understand the progressive currents in education -- and how to thwart them -- you need to keep up with Dissident Prof. Jane Robbins, board member, and Senior Fellow, American Principles Project.
'Dissident Prof' should be an oxymoron in the university. 'Dissident' should be a word reserved for things like gulags. Well, sadly, the academy, despite its hypocritical claims of “diversity,” really has become a sort of gulag for men and women of conservative beliefs. Conservatives in the modern academy are like dissidents, frequently ridiculed, ostracized, marginalized, demonized, and frozen out by the liberal/progressive elites who talk diversity, tolerance, and inclusion but in fact apply them only to their own, and certainly not to conservatives. Kudos to Mary Grabar and her fellow dissidents in providing a rare glimmer of genuine diversity in the intellectual Siberia that is the modern university. Paul Kengor, Professor of Political Science, Grove City College.
