# Intercollegiate Studies Institute The conservative movement's oldest campus-based intellectual pipeline. Founded in 1953 as the Intercollegiate Society of Individualists by libertarian journalist Frank Chodorov — with a young [[William F. Buckley Jr.]] as its first president — ISI was created to counter the Intercollegiate Socialist Society by providing free-market and traditionalist intellectual formation to college students. It was the first conservative organization to focus specifically on winning the campus, predating [[Young Americans for Freedom]] (1960), the [[Federalist Society]] (1982), and the Turning Point USA generation by decades. Where the [[Federalist Society]] built a *legal* pipeline and the [[Heritage Foundation]] built a *policy* pipeline, ISI built an *intellectual* pipeline — cultivating the next generation of conservative thinkers, writers, and academics through reading programs, summer seminars, publications, and a national network that turned isolated right-of-center students into a self-conscious intellectual community. ## Origins Frank Chodorov was an "Old Right" libertarian — a disciple of Albert Jay Nock, editor of *The Freeman*, and contributor to *Human Events* — who believed the left had won the universities and that the right needed to fight on the same terrain. His 1950 essay "For Our Children's Children" laid out the case: the Intercollegiate Socialist Society (later the League for Industrial Democracy) had been organizing students since 1905; conservatives had nothing comparable. Chodorov recruited the 27-year-old Buckley, fresh off the sensation of *[[God and Man at Yale]]* (1951), to serve as ISI's first president and give the fledgling organization visibility. The original name — Intercollegiate Society of Individualists — reflected Chodorov's libertarian orientation. It was changed to Intercollegiate Studies Institute in 1966, a shift that tracked the broader movement's evolution from libertarian purism toward [[Fusionism]] — the synthesis of libertarianism and traditionalism that became the conservative consensus. ## Core Programs ### Campus Network ISI operates campus groups at colleges and universities nationwide, hosting lectures, reading groups, debates, and conferences. The model is intellectual formation, not political activism — ISI has always emphasized *ideas* over *organizing*, distinguishing it from more explicitly political campus operations like [[Young Americans for Freedom]] or Turning Point USA. Students encounter texts from Burke, Kirk, Hayek, Tocqueville, and the broader [[Western Civilization]] canon rather than campaign strategy or policy briefs. ### Honors Program ISI's flagship fellowship: a highly selective undergraduate program that takes students through intensive study of the Western intellectual tradition — political philosophy, economics, history, literature — with a faculty mentor network, summer colloquia, and a cohort model designed to build lifelong intellectual relationships. The Honors Program is the core of ISI's pipeline function: it identifies undergraduates with serious intellectual interests and connects them to the conservative intellectual infrastructure early. ### Summer Programs and Conferences Annual summer schools, regional conferences, and national symposia expose students to conservative faculty and writers. These events function as talent showcases and recruiting grounds for graduate programs, think tanks, and publications across the conservative ecosystem. ### Collegiate Network Acquired by ISI in 1995, the Collegiate Network provides financial and technical support to independent conservative student publications — more than 80 campus newspapers, magazines, and journals. The CN has functioned as a journalism pipeline, producing alumni who went on to careers at major conservative and mainstream publications. It is the campus-media counterpart to what the Federalist Society does for law. ## Publications ### *Modern Age: A Conservative Review* ISI's flagship intellectual journal, founded in 1957 by [[Russell Kirk]] and Henry Regnery. *Modern Age* was conceived as the conservative answer to the liberal quarterlies — a serious journal of ideas on culture, history, philosophy, and political thought. Kirk edited it through its early years, establishing its tone as Burkean, humanistic, and skeptical of both ideological dogmatism and technocratic management. It remains in publication as a quarterly journal of conservative thought. ### *The Intercollegiate Review* ISI's student-facing publication, now a weekly curated newsletter featuring commentary on politics, education, the arts, and conservative thought. Originally a print journal for the campus network, it has evolved into a digital platform that introduces students to the conservative intellectual tradition. ### ISI Books ISI's publishing imprint (operated until 2023) produced books on conservative intellectual history, political philosophy, and cultural criticism. Notable titles included works by Kirk, [[George Nash]], and other movement intellectuals. ISI Books filled a niche in conservative publishing — more academic than Regnery Publishing, more accessible than university presses — and kept in print foundational texts that might otherwise have gone out of circulation. ## Role in the Conservative Intellectual Infrastructure ISI occupies a specific position in the broader conservative personnel pipeline that is distinct from its peer institutions: | Institution | Pipeline Function | Founded | |---|---|---| | **ISI** | Intellectual formation (undergrad → thinker/writer/academic) | 1953 | | **[[Young Americans for Freedom]]** | Political activism (undergrad → organizer/operative) | 1960 | | **[[Heritage Foundation]]** | Policy development (researcher → government appointee) | 1973 | | **[[Federalist Society]]** | Legal network (law student → judge/DOJ/agency counsel) | 1982 | | **[[Hillsdale College]]** | Institutional alternative (full conservative campus) | 1844 (conservative identity from 1970s) | | **[[Claremont Institute]]** | Post-grad intellectual formation (fellow → public intellectual) | 1979 | The pipeline operates upstream of the others: ISI identifies students *before* they specialize, forming them in the broad conservative intellectual tradition and connecting them to the network where they later sort into legal, policy, media, or academic tracks. Many conservative leaders passed through ISI programs before going on to roles at these downstream institutions. ## Notable Alumni ISI claims an impressive roster of program participants and alumni, including Supreme Court Justices [[Neil Gorsuch]] and [[Samuel Alito]], PayPal co-founder and political donor [[Peter Thiel]], Heritage Foundation founder [[Ed Feulner]], [[Hillsdale College]] president Larry Arnn, and author [[Dinesh D'Souza]]. The organization reported over 40,000 students had participated in its programs by the early 1960s; the cumulative total through seven decades is substantially larger. ## Connection to Fusionism ISI's intellectual evolution mirrors the broader conservative movement's trajectory. Founded on Chodorov's libertarian premises, it evolved under subsequent leadership — particularly under E. Victor Milione (president 1962–1988) and T. Kenneth Cribb Jr. (president 1989–2011) — into a [[Fusionism]]-era institution that embraced the Meyer synthesis of libertarianism and traditionalism. Its core reading lists blend Hayek and Friedman (libertarian), Kirk and Weaver (traditionalist), and Burnham and Chambers (anti-communist) — the same three tributaries that [[George Nash]] identified as the foundations of [[Movement Conservatism]] in *[[The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America Since 1945]]*. ISI's current positioning in the post-fusionist landscape is more traditionalist than libertarian — its emphasis on [[Western Civilization]], the "permanent things," and the humanistic tradition aligns it more with the Kirk wing than the Hayek wing of the old coalition. ## Funding ISI operates as a 501(c)(3) educational nonprofit. Its donors have historically included the major conservative foundations — [[Bradley Foundation]], the [[Olin Foundation]], the Scaife foundations, and individual donors in the broader conservative philanthropic network. Annual revenue has historically been in the $10–15M range, modest by think-tank standards but substantial for a campus-focused intellectual organization. ## See Also - [[William F. Buckley Jr.]] — First president - [[Russell Kirk]] — Founder of *Modern Age*, ISI's flagship journal - [[George Nash]] — ISI alumnus and historian of the movement ISI helped build - [[National Review]] — The publication Buckley founded two years after ISI - [[Federalist Society]] — Parallel pipeline for legal personnel - [[Heritage Foundation]] — Parallel pipeline for policy personnel - [[Young Americans for Freedom]] — Parallel pipeline for political activism - [[Movement Conservatism]] — The coalition ISI helped intellectually staff - [[Fusionism]] — The synthesis ISI's programming reflected - [[Western Civilization]] — The intellectual tradition ISI exists to transmit - [[Classical Education Movement]] — Adjacent educational movement