Report: Leftist Interest Groups Calling the Shots at Many American Universities

According to a recently published investigative report, leftist interest groups are secretly playing a major role at many American Universities, often funded in part by mandatory student fees.

According to a report by the Capital Research Center, “public interest research groups” are playing a silent yet major role at many major American universities. The report makes the case that these interest groups use universities and their students to advance a progressive partisan agenda.

Public interest research groups often raise funds via dishonest or deceitful methods. For example, many groups are funded by mandatory student fees. According to the report, the New York Public Interest Research Group has been able to raise $1 million each year from mandatory student fees.

As David Seidemann, an environmental science professor at Brooklyn College, wrote in 2016: “administrators at public universities across the country have granted [the PIRGs] unique campus privileges and funneled millions of dollars—in part, from mandatory student fees.”

As a result, the New York chapter of PIRG (NYPIRG) now “raises more money than all other campus student groups and surreptitiously diverts those funds to its statewide lobbying operations”—as much as $1 million forcibly raised from the pockets of college students each year.

Many of these groups are using these funds to promote a partisan political agenda, such as the Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group. This group, which was founded in 1972, utilizes its resources on campuses to encourage young college students to support Democrat candidates for public office.

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