We aim to restore balance to the ideological climate at Columbia. We believe that on a level playing field, conservative ideas will win. However, this requires that these ideas first reach members of the university community. To accomplish this, we have several projects underway, mostly but not entirely with our on-campus friends the Columbia College Conservative Club.

We aim to give conservative student groups the sustenance and stability they need to remain vigorous and visible parts of the community despite the inevitable annual changes of their personnel, and to provide these personnel an activist connection after they graduate, so that talent and experience may accumulate and not dissipate.

We help finance and organize conservative student groups' poster campaigns on campus. How do we know this matters? Very simple - the opposition constantly tears them down, showing how terrified they are that someone will read them. There is no clearer sign of our opponents' inability to rebut our arguments than their frantic attempts to silence us. (We don't have to tear theirs down: we tear their very ideas -- and their Berlin Walls -- down by argument.)

We also sponsor speakers on campus. If you know a good conservative speaker who would be willing to come to Columbia, contact us. Again, the frantic rudeness with which Columbia leftists have treated conservative speakers in the past shows how unable they are to rebut our ideas by rational debate. We welcome their screams, which only show the community at large what an ill-mannered lunatic fringe they are. It is a simple fact that conservatives have never disrupted an event at Columbia such that extra security was required, but leftists have done so time and again.

We also sponsor the distribution of conservative periodicals and books on campus. A student's entire ideological life can be changed because someone gave him or her a copy of, say, Hayek's The Road to Serfdom. But someone has to give it. And if copies of The Weekly Standard or National Review are nowhere to be found on campus, you can be sure that no-one is reading them. One of the best things you can do to help us is sponsor the distribution of your favorite conservative book or magazine on campus.

We also sponsor a video table on campus running tapes of conservative politicians and thinkers.

And we keep a close eye on the administration's behavior, even occasionally negotiating with or admonishing them directly. We aim to publicize their transgressions and be a reliable source of news for alumni concerned about the ideological compleion of this institution.

But to do all these things takes money, and with authentic New York bluntness we must confess that your contributions are key. (Because we are legally a political organization, these are not tax-deductible.) So in Churchill's words, "Give us the tools, and we will finish the job." E-mail us at columbiacons@hotmail.com.

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