NAS research now occuring on campus

The Bowdoin Project: NAS study to use unbiased approach

In its October 14 editorial ("Klingenstein's Study"), The Bowdoin Orient questioned the validity of the Bowdoin College study that I am conducting. You say that the study cannot be "objective" because it is funded by Tom Klingenstein and it "appears to be driven by a clear agenda."
Your editorial also notes that the National Association of Scholars (NAS) has "never conducted a study on only a single college before" and that "the motive for this study is not genuine intellectual curiosity."
The editorial finally and "most importantly" faults the study as something that "does not recognize the critical thinking abilities of Bowdoin students."

The Bowdoin Project: NAS to release “The Bowdoin Project” next Wednesday

The National Association of Scholars (NAS), a conservative organization that aims to “foster intellectual freedom and to sustain the tradition of reasoned scholarship” in America, will release its complete report on the intellectual diversity of the College next Wednesday, according to NAS President Peter Wood.
“The Bowdoin Project,” as the study is titled, is a critique of Bowdoin’s liberal arts curriculum, and has been in the works since fall 2011. Wood explained that the report addresses the curriculum, “core concepts,” faculty, and student life at the College. The report’s preface contains its lone recommendation for future action: “that Bowdoin form a commission to examine some of the problems that we think we’ve brought to light,” according to Wood.
Funded by investment manager Thomas Klingenstein, the study has been the subject of much controversy on and off campus, which began shortly after President Barry Mills anecdotally cited Klingenstein’s dismissal of Bowdoin’s liberal arts model in his September 2010 convocation address. Klingenstein responded to Mills’ remarks with a harsh essay in the Claremont Review of Books that spring, and announced the NAS study—then titled “What Does Bowdoin Teach?” the following October.

The Bowdoin Project

NAS research now occuring on campus

November 18, 2011

Michael Toscano, the primary researcher of the Klingenstein-funded study on Bowoin's intellectual diversity, will be on campus until Monday, speaking to professors and students at the College in an effort to answer the essential question of the survey: what does Bowdoin teach?

The study was launched by the National Association of Scholars in September at the behest of Thomas Klingenstein, who criticized Bowdoin last year for its lack of intellectual diversity. Klingenstein had a bone to pick with President Barry Mills last year when he claimed that Mills misquoted him in his 2010 Convocation address.

Toscano declined to say which professors and students he had met. He does not plan on auditing any classes, saying he has a busy schedule and was hesitant to impose during class time.

Toscano says that he believes the interviews he has conducted with students and faculty will eventually "come to fruition." He is hopeful that the study will provide another "vantage point" and an opportunity for the College to ascertain its core values.

According to Toscano, only some of the professors he has contacted have agreed to meet.

Several professors have expressed skepticism about the study, claiming that there is inherent bias in a study that has been instigated for personal reasons. At the time the Orient went to print, no faculty members were willing to comment on the record.

The study is not endorsed by the college and President Mills has declined to comment on it.

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