By Christopher Chow

College students from across the country flocked to Washington, DC on July 12th to attend Accuracy in Academia's most successful Conservative University ever. More than 175 participants, including 70 full-time attendees from such prestigious universities as Harvard, Stanford, and Berkeley, partook in the four-day event.

Hundreds of thousands more joined those in attendance through C-SPAN, which aired lectures by Accuracy in Media chairman Reed Irvine, authors Burt Folsom and Herb Romerstein, and Professor Wes McDonald.

Conservative University featured a day-long program on how college textbooks distort American history; a book discussion of Russell Kirk's Redeeming the Time; and a student panel outlining political correctness on campus.

The conference kicked off with outspoken capitalist Reginald Jones discussing how the entrepreneur is ridiculed in academia.

"Bill Gates is one of the favorite targets of the anti-capitalist in this country and around the world. And it's said that Bill Gates has too much power. And I've always questioned that because Bill Gates cannot force me to buy anything. He cannot force me into any retirement program. He cannot force my kids to go to a school that he chooses."

"If the government can take 25% of our income, why not 50%? Why not all of it?" Jones asked the audience. Burt Folsom of the Center for the American Idea, energetically discussed "The Myth of the Robber Barons." Folsom dealt with economic issues both past and present. He helped clear up misinformation about which economic strategies have worked and which haven't.One student commented that Folsom, "Made history come alive."

Dr. Judith Reisman elaborated on her book, Kinsey: Crimes and Consequences. She demonstrated how Alfred Kinsey, the most cited sexologist of all time continues to exert a profound impact on American culture today. She cast serious doubt on Kinsey's conclusion that children were sexual beings from birth by exposing Kinsey's heavy reliance on information taken from admitted pedophiles. She also showed how Kinsey stacked sample groups with sex offenders to skew survey results to support his own sexual perversions.

Dr. Reisman argued that Kinsey's work is partly responsible for the rising rates of divorce, abortion, and sex crimes in our society. Lori Cole, executive director of Eagle Forum, talked about how she was labeled a traitor in college for being a pro-life woman. "[One of my professors would] ask me more questions," she told the audience. "'How can you be a woman, and be a conservative?' He just couldn't understand it."

When her college asked her for an alumni donation, she noted to applause, she turned them down. One female student commented, "Lori Cole took a stance towards anti-feminism, but is still a powerful, successful woman. She expressed the reality that true conservative women are not feminists, and should not call themselves such."

Herb Romerstein was also featured as a key speaker at Conservative University. His book, The Venona Secrets reveals shocking evidence of just how deeply the Soviet Union was able to infiltrate the United States government.

"The Cold War started in 1919. But most people in the West didn't know that it had started," Romerstein told the audience. "It started with the establishment of the Communist International, an organization in Moscow, organizing communist parties of the world in an international apparatus to take over the world.... where necessary they would use force, and where possible they would use other methods."

Friday's program wrapped up with Dinesh D'Souza, who discussed the historical importance of the Reagan years and how Bush should look to that presidency for guidance. "Bush came in and learned a very valuable lesson. And the lesson was that if you look back at the recent history of the three presidents, Nixon, Ford, and George Bush the father, who all veered to the center in order to unify the country and strengthen their political prospects, all ended up as failures-at least from an electoral point of view. And the one guy who veered the other way, Reagan, is the only example that we have of a successful conservative in the second half of the century."

D'Souza cites Reagan's boldness as the greatest reason for his success. His frank humor, and carefree attitude let people know that he was in power, but not out of touch.

As part of Conservative University all in attendance were required to read Redeeming the Time, a collection of Russell Kirk's essays.

One of Kirk's assistants, Professor Wes McDonald of Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania, gave an in-depth view of the life of one of the most important conservative thinkers of the 20th century.

"Kirk for his part decides that material conditions of life rise out of what? Our spiritual life," he told the listening students. "The stronger our spiritual life, the stronger our families, the stronger the churches, our neighborhoods, our communities. And the stronger the will and the will to work with one's self."

The conference concluded with an inspiring speech by longtime conservative activist Howard Phillips.

"Once the federal government puts its nose in the tent, it can never be pushed out. The liberals make no such strategic concessions."

Other speakers at the conference included authors Arthur Herman and Joseph Sobran, and syndicated columnist Sam Francis.

While some of the conference attendees arrived in small groups, most of the students signed up individually, hoping to find a community of young conservatives that was absent on their campuses. For many it was the first time they had encountered so many similarly-minded young people who shared their beliefs in conservative ideas and could relate to their struggle against leftist dogma on campus.

Conservative University students were eager to share what they had learned with others at their colleges. Graduates of the program vowed to heighten their campus activism during the coming school year as a result of the conference.

One student noted the crucial role AIA plays in education, describing Conservative University as "The greatest learning experience of my life."