Excerpts From Correspondence of Interest to Libertarians

Alumni Funds

Dear Mr. S:

Your search for a proper answer to the solicitor of funds for “Alma Mater” is a problem which has plagued many a deviant alumnus, including me. It is not that I disagree with everything being taught; it is only that the package, as offered, does not appeal to me.

Perhaps I should inject here that most of my deviation from the current philosophies expounded through my alma mater is not the consequence of their having changed. It is I who have deviated toward the free market, private property, limited government, libertarian point of view. As far as I know, the colleges are still offering approximately the same educational opportunities they once offered me—the same general ideas and philosophies—within the same kind of an institutional framework which precludes any donor’s chance of separating the parts he might want to support from the parts objectionable to him.

In fairness to the colleges, I’ll concede that I was not a wise student. I failed to select some of the better courses and better teachers. There were then and still are some excellent teachers, along with the mediocre or worse. I simply was unprepared to make the best selection. I now believe that the kind of college instruction being offered is a responsibility which must be borne in part by the college student. The opportunity of students to influence this trend is probably greater than the direct opportunity open to present and potential contributors to alumni funds.

What I’m suggesting is that we spend more time working with our own youngsters, consulting with them and advising them after we have earned their desire to seek our advice. This means doing our own homework first, learning to distinguish sharply and to explain clearly the distinctions between libertarian and authoritarian doctrines.

Paul L. Poirot, FEE Staff

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