Ask the Wesleyan Democrats how they booked their recent string of important speakers and they’ll tell you it helps to have friends in Washington, D.C.
Campus Progress, the student wing of the Washington-based think tank Center for American Progress, has established itself as a major source of funding for progressive student groups at Wesleyan this year. Headed by Justin Costa ’06, Matt Lesser ’08, and Rebecca Littman ’08, Campus Progress provides substantial resources for student groups and facilitates inter-campus coordination across the country.
“Campus Progress is the link between student groups at Wesleyan and a national organization [Center for American Progress],” Littman said. “In addition, we coordinate campaigns on campuses so that they can be more easily heard by the national media and the national government.”
Launched last year by Center for American Progress, Campus Progress provides funding for student-based progressive activism. As an alternative to the Wesleyan Student Assembly (WSA), student groups can apply for funding via a Campus Progress student representative at their college. Campus Progress provides $200-$1,000 for “action grants,” funding for political organization and campaigns. Student groups may also apply for grants of up to $3,500 for creating and maintaining progressive campus publications.
“Campus Progress is designed to be a national organization to provide student groups with money and resources,” Costa said. “Also, they’ve taken a special interest in Wesleyan because we have three national student representatives working for them. They know that we’re dedicated to working with them, so they are dedicated to working with us.”
Campus Progress also sponsors specific events at colleges. It held its first Wesleyan event last semester; a lecture by Yale Law Professor Robert W. Gordon about the nomination of Supreme Court Judge Samuel Alito. Campus Progress also sponsored a speech by David Halperin, former senior aide to President Clinton.
Campus Progress and the Wesleyan Democrats also brought Nan Aron, President of the Alliance for Justice, to speak yesterday in Memorial Chapel.
In addition, Campus Progress hopes that eventually it will create an online political publication where students can write articles and view a calendar of speakers coming to Wesleyan throughout the year.
“Campus Progress is trying to increase and organize student progressive activism through a variety of ways, including grants for student publications and ‘action grants’ for student campaigns,” Lesser said. “They also have a speakers’ bureau to provide free and top-name speakers at colleges. We think it can be an incredible resource for Wesleyan and make it easier for students’ voices to be heard on and off campus.”
All of Campus Progress’ money comes from the Democratic-leaning Center for American Progress, which was founded in 2003 by President Clinton’s former chief of staff, John Podesta. According to its mission statement, Center for American Progress seeks to “find progressive and pragmatic solutions to significant domestic and international problems and develop policy proposals that foster a government that is ‘of the people, by the people, and for the people.”
Other high-profile liberals, such as former Senator Tom Daschle, are senior fellows of the think tank. Funding for the Center for American Progress mostly comes from tax-exempt private donations, and the organization is officially considered a public charity.
Even with so much funding for progressive causes, Lesser insists that Campus Progress will not stifle balanced political debate at Wesleyan, and that its definition of “progressive activism” is sufficiently vague to allow for a variety of groups to utilize the available funding.
“There are lots of sources for conservative funding out there,” Lesser said. “Conservative foundations have been promoting right-wing activism for 20 years. That’s why Campus Progress was founded: to provide a counter for right-wing funding. We are not an exclusively Democratic organization and we’re willing to work with a variety of groups. We’re here and these resources are available.”
To apply for funding grants, contact Campus Progress’ Wesleyan branch at wesleyanprogress@gmail.com.
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