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Truman Scholarships overwhelmingly awarded to progressive students for tenth year in row
College Fix ^ | MAY 10, 2024 | BENJAMIN ROTHOVE

Posted on 05/11/2024 7:49:10 AM PDT by george76

Meanwhile, fewer than one in 10 are openly conservative, analysis finds

Nearly three in four recipients of this year’s prestigious, federally funded Truman Scholarship have clear ties to Democratic politicians or progressive causes, a College Fix analysis found.

Approximately 43 of the 60 students have worked for Democratic politicians, advocated for progressive causes, or identify as left-leaning — continuing an annual trend exposed in past Fix analyses.

In contrast, only five scholars have worked for Republican politicians, advocated for conservative causes, or identify as right-leaning. The College Fix determined this information based on provided biographies, LinkedIn profiles, and email inquiries.

Terry Babcock-Lumish, the executive secretary of the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation, told The Fix in a recent email the foundation does not consider students’ political affiliation “as a criteria for selection.”

“The Truman Foundation’s selection process is based solely on applicants’ demonstrated commitment to public service, leadership potential, and academic excellence,” she said.

Babcock-Lumish said the foundation often does not know applicants’ political affiliations and students regularly work for politicians “with whom their beliefs are not 100% aligned.”

She continued, “Our annual competition requires nominations from undergraduate institutions, so the Truman Scholars we select are reflective of the pool of candidates that we have before us. If students are not nominated or do not apply, we cannot select them. Accordingly, let me again ask The College Fix to encourage readers making commitments to careers in public service to apply.”

The Democratic politicians whom the 2024 scholarship winners have worked or interned for include Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib, California Rep. Adam Schiff, Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff, Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green, and Michigan state Rep. Abraham Aiyash.

...

Awardees also have been involved with left-wing organizations, including Planned Parenthood Generation Action, College Democrats, Young Democrats, Equal Rights Advocates, and Women of Color Advancing Peace, Security, and Conflict Resolution.

Additionally, some have advocated for progressive issues such as “the safety of LGBTQ+ disabled youth,” “racial justice activism,” “pro-union policies,” “environmental justice,” and “social justice and equity,” The Fix analysis found.

A few of this year’s recipients worked for Republican politicians, including Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, Tennessee Sen. Bill Hagerty, Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran, and Tennessee Rep. Diana Harshbarger.

The remaining 12 recipients did not respond to inquiries from The Fix about their political leanings, and their ideologies could not be definitively determined based on public information.

Issues considered politically neutral by The Fix include cleaning waterways, removing invasive species, tackling aviation safety challenges, addressing rural mental healthcare access, researching agricultural sustainability, and “designing prescribed fire programs for the National Park Service.”

Truman Scholarships have been disproportionately awarded to progressive recipients every year since at least 2015, according to past Fix analyses. In both 2018 and 2021, zero openly conservative students were awarded a Truman Scholarship.

Last year, The Fix found only four scholarship winners publicly identified as conservative, while 29 recipients had evident ties to progressive causes.

The $30,000 scholarship is awarded to approximately 60 students annually, selected from a pool of about 800 applicants. Awardees pledge to spend three of their first seven years after finishing graduate school in public service.

The scholarship foundation was established by Congress as a federal memorial to President Harry Truman. The foundation’s board of trustees has a bipartisan makeup, as directed by federal statute.

Current board members include Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, Texas Republican Rep. Kay Granger, Kansas Republican Sen. Jerry Moran, New Jersey Democrat Rep. Andy Kim, and Hawaii Democrat Sen. Brian Schatz.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: liberals; scholarship; scholarships; truman; trumanscholarship

1 posted on 05/11/2024 7:49:10 AM PDT by george76
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To: george76

Well am I the first to utter: duh, it’s the Truman scholarship. Not the Dewey scholorship.


2 posted on 05/11/2024 8:19:20 AM PDT by larryjohnson (FReepersonaltrainer)
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To: george76

Terry Babcock-Lumish is a bald faced liar.

L


3 posted on 05/11/2024 8:21:35 AM PDT by Lurker ( Peaceful coexistence with the Left is not possible. Stop pretending that it is.)
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To: george76

Let’s not jump on the “proportional representation” bandwagon. Do conservative students apply at the same rate as liberals? Do they qualify at the same rate? Are they as interested in pursuing something named after a Democratic President as liberals?


4 posted on 05/11/2024 8:32:07 AM PDT by nwrep
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To: george76

“Current board members include...”

Texas Rep. Kay Granger = RINO
Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran = RINO


5 posted on 05/11/2024 8:35:29 AM PDT by Mr. N. Wolfe
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To: george76

Kill the Fed Dep of Ed and the Truman scholarships.

What does “dedication to “pubic service” actually mean? It means dedication to Liberal causes.

Private corporations, like Apple and Intel for instance, have done far more for all humanity than all the “public servants” since Truman.


6 posted on 05/11/2024 9:00:59 AM PDT by Wuli
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To: george76

Couple of questions, most stand alone and are not follow-ups to one another.

* Oh, Truman Scholarships overwhelmingly awarded to progressive students for tenth year in row?

Good! That’s because conservatives are not willingly surrendering their children to the indoctrination camps anymore, right? Go woke go broke right?

* Oh, Truman Scholarships overwhelmingly awarded to progressive students for tenth year in row?

This is a good thing in general as any conservative parent should view this as nothing more than a form of bribery. What is the price you would sell your child to the indoctrinators?

* So the Truman Scholarships overwhelmingly awarded to progressive students for tenth year in row?

How do they know in advance the students are ideologically progressive?

* The Truman Scholarships overwhelmingly awarded to progressive students for tenth year in row.

Good. If you want to turn your child into Karl Marx and you’re a conservative? You deserve to pay every single penny for it you fool! Just give them a copy of the Communist Manifesto and you can do it for free. What are you paying 100,000 dollars for a free job for?


7 posted on 05/11/2024 10:36:53 AM PDT by ProgressingAmerica (The historians must be stopped. They're destroying everything.)
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To: ProgressingAmerica

So conservative students should not attend graduate school?
It sounds like it is funded with tax money and the selection is supposed to be bipartisan.

I assume the students would declare their internships with various politicians, interest groups, etc. on their applications.

How about cancelling the federal subsidy — there wouldn’t be enough left for 60 scholarships per year — it might go to zero.


8 posted on 05/11/2024 3:39:23 PM PDT by scrabblehack
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To: scrabblehack

No, they should not.

Trying to have it both ways is killing everything. Pick one and only one.

If someone says universities indoctrinate then they simply have no business attending one. If they attend one, then they get what they deserve, good and hard. After all they did pay for it.


9 posted on 05/12/2024 9:33:53 AM PDT by ProgressingAmerica (The historians must be stopped. They're destroying everything.)
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To: ProgressingAmerica

Alito attended Princeton and Yale.
Clarence Thomas also went to Yale Law School.

Liberal? Yes. But for now, it’s the game we have to play.

As I indicated above, I would be OK with cancelling the Truman Scholarship, or at least withholding the Federal portion of it which is likely nearly all of it.


10 posted on 05/12/2024 12:38:18 PM PDT by scrabblehack
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To: scrabblehack; All

I thought at first the Truman Scholarships were biased toward being awarded to students going to the Ivy League hence the bias towards progressive\leftist students. That’s not the case the bias is toward nonsensical liberal arts and social science degrees. In other words, people whose intent is government careers. That student pool will be heavily leftist, etc. Flatten out the academic degrees away from self-congratulatory mental masturbation to real academic fields and you will flatten out that bias.


11 posted on 05/12/2024 12:58:44 PM PDT by Reily (!!)
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To: scrabblehack

Progressives don’t “play games”, they aim to win.

It’s our guys who “play the game” all the while its not a game to begin with.


12 posted on 05/13/2024 6:36:38 AM PDT by ProgressingAmerica (The historians must be stopped. They're destroying everything.)
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