Illustration by Josh Hagler

Last week, a study was published by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni that included a mission statement and important words of wisdom from our vice president's wife, Lynne Cheney, a founding member of the league. Included is a list of 117 quotes from students, faculty and distinguished speakers from university campuses nationwide that reveal any type of anti-war sentiment.

The study, titled "Defending Civilization: How Our Universities Are Failing America and What Can Be Done About It," encourages the addition of extra American history courses at universities to boost morale. It also asks that universities not add any courses involving students gaining insight or knowledge into the Arab world or Islam. As Mrs. Cheney puts it, adding these kinds of classes "implies that the events of Sept. 11 were our fault."

Good call, Lynne.

This report would be like any other report issued by an advocacy group except for two reasons. One, the group was founded in 1995 by a small group of people including the Veep's wife. Two, the last section of the document - published on the World Wide Web and distributed widely to curb leftist tendencies in the academic world - is nothing short of a blacklist.

Sen. Joseph McCarthy has graced us again with his presence through this Council of Trustees and created a new list for a new century to chastise and alienate anyone with a view contradictory to the mainstream - or in this case the assumed mainstream. Think you're safe from the reaches of the lynching mob? Think again.

Individual #49 made the list by saying, "Ignorance Breeds Hate."

Damn him straight to hell, right?

The study, which had a particular problem with any kind of peace rally put on at a university campus, found professors and the nation's university system in general to be the weak link in America's war-hungry response to the attacks on the World Trade Center.

Showing polls, the study demonstrates that 92 percent of Americans thought on Sept. 25 that the United States should go to war even if casualties occur, but just the day before, only 28 percent of Harvard students felt the same way. The conclusion drawn from the Council: "We are right, and they are wrong. It's as simple as that."

Individual #30 made the list by chanting, "What do we want? Peace! When do we want it? Now!" The inclusion of this phrase on the hit list, and recent events on the UA campus - like the cold reception College Republicans gave to the early-November peace fasters on the Mall - prompts this question: Since when can't you be conservative and also for peace? When did the old Republican messages disappear? Remember those of Eisenhower, Nixon and Reagan telling the American public that the Republican Party was the party best elected to keep peace? Has the conservative platform completely transformed since Sept. 11 so much that peacemakers can no longer participate?

Individual #33 made the list by quoting Martin Luther King Jr. "An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind." According to the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, even King should lose his American hero status if one is now placed on a blacklist for displaying his most famous preachings.

When the report was first placed on the Web, it was a travesty in the face of justice. Inappropriately, the Council took disjointed phrases and pieced them together, took phrases out of context and worst of all, published names.

Todd Gitlin, a professor of communications at New York University, called the report "a record- breaking event in the annals of hodgepodge scholarship."

Whenever one has to fear being labeled a blasphemer for calling for peace, a little more of our constitutional freedom of speech slips away.

And the Council knows it.

As of yesterday afternoon, the Web site is under construction. By this morning, the names will be removed and the list of 117 offenses will read something like "Professor of English at Brown University: blah, blah, peace, blah blah" instead of "Jesse Jackson in a speech at Harvard Law School: "America should build bridges and relationships, not simply bombs and walls."

Knowing what we do about the Rev. Jackson, he more than likely considered it a compliment when he was included in what we should properly refer to as "Top 117 peacemakers."