A September report by the higher education research collective UnCivil called out four Claremont Colleges for their ties to civil discourse programs that the collective says embrace anti-activist agendas or are funded by billionaire-led conservative nonprofits.
The UnCivil Collective report, “The Civility Files,” highlighted three organizations with connections to the Claremont Colleges: the College Presidents for Civic Preparedness (CPCP), an organization four Claremont College presidents are members of; the Constructive Dialogue Institute (CDI), a group which provides political dialogue programming to Claremont McKenna College; and BridgeUSA, an organization which had an active chapter in Claremont until last spring.
UnCivil is a group of scholars and researchers that aims to map the donor networks and conceptual origins of what they call the Civil Industrial Complex, or the series of conservative campus initiatives and private- and state-funded “civic thought” centers that claim to support civil discourse and viewpoint diversity, according to the research collective’s website.
Leila Markosian, an UnCivil advisory board member, said UnCivil’s main goal is to educate students and faculty on the threat of the “right-wing ideology that’s being laundered through these programs” under the guise of protecting viewpoint diversity.
“Campus programs focused on viewpoint diversity, pluralism and civil discourse are actually overwhelmingly bankrolled by conservative and pro-Israel donors,” Markosian said. “We want to help equip students and faculty to see that these programs are actually attempts to platform right-wing ideas and delegitimize progressive activism by setting protests up as the opposition to dialogue and stability.”
The presidents of Scripps College, Pitzer College, Harvey Mudd College and CMC are part of the CPCP, a collective of college presidents that states a goal to “build campus cultures where all students … feel empowered to engage in civil discourse, identify reliable information, and solve problems together.” According to The Civility Files, the CPCP received over $13 million from organizations like the Einhorn Collaborative and the John Templeton Foundation, both of which the report says fund right-wing advocacy organizations.
Carolyn Robles, assistant vice president of marketing and communications at Scripps, said Amy Marcus-Newhall agrees with the CPCP that civil discourse is key to higher education institutions.
“[She] shares the perspective that civic engagement is woven into Scripps College’s mission, which empowers students to become leaders, fosters a commitment to social responsibility, and provides the skills and experiences necessary to effect meaningful change,” Robles wrote in an email to TSL.
CMC declined to comment, while Harvey Mudd College and Pitzer College did not respond for comment by press time.
CDI creates programming for college students and administrators. The group received $3.9 million from the Templeton Foundation from 2020 through 2024, and $5 million combined from organizations like the Mike & Sofia Segal Foundation, which the report found gave $3 million to the CDI in 2026; the Segal Foundation is heavily invested in organizations like the Aleph Institute, which has a formal partnership with the Israel Defense Forces, and the American Israel Education Foundation, an affiliate of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
CDI created an online program called Perspectives that CMC made mandatory for its first-year students to complete. CDI describes Perspectives on the program’s website as an “evidence-based online learning experience that helps students build the skills to engage across differences with curiosity and confidence.”
Jack Horan CM ’30 said that while thinking CMC does a good job promoting open dialogue on campus, CDI’s Perspectives module felt less nuanced.
“[Perspectives shields] away from even acknowledging discourse at all,” Horan said. “They advise you to avoid the hard conversations and not engage in conversations where people could be emotionally affected.”
BridgeUSA has a stated mission to promote “viewpoint diversity, responsible discourse, and a solution-oriented political culture,” and had an active chapter at the 5Cs until last spring. UnCivil found that BridgeUSA received $1.3 million from groups like the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations and the Paul E. Singer Foundation, both of which UnCivil claims have heavily funded Zionist organizations, as well as groups against the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement.
Zena Almeida-Warwin PO ’28 was a member of the 5C BridgeUSA chapter and said the club focused on encouraging healthy conversations around Claremont-specific issues like Café 47’s transition to Starbucks products last fall. She said the larger organization had little influence over the 5C chapter’s work, and that the chapter’s focus was on “fostering community for contentious issues around campus and trying to bridge polarization politically.”
“[I] didn’t feel like there [were any topics] innately required or discouraged from the national organization,” Almeida-Warwin said. “I imagine they are a little bit more hands-on in some of their more politically active campuses or branches [where] they have a larger presence or [more] engagement.”
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