UVA Student Overcomes Great Odds With Help from LI

December 1, 2010, Arlington, VA—University of Virginia student Wes Siler with the help of the Leadership Institute received university funding for their conservative student group after being denied funding from the students’ association and the university president.

Wes Siler and his UVA friends began the Burke Society to promote conservatism on campus. Their “mission is to host speakers and organize events to further conservative values and thought on grounds.”  Their efforts to become a university funded and recognized student organization was denied by the “liberal student association” and the university president.

FIRE, an organization devoted to defending individual rights in higher education, worked with LI in drafting a letter to the UVA president. Within ten minutes of receiving this letter, the university president called the student council president instructing him to allocate money to the Burke Society and give them the right to associate.  

The Burke Society has worked to get a conservative course called “Conservatism 101” on campus so students can learn conservative ideology as well. For the full story about this course and news articles, please click here.

The Leadership Institute recognizes Wes and the Burke Society’s unwavering commitment to conservatism, no matter the cost. Good work, we are proud of you!

For more information on FIRE, please click here.

For more information on the Burke Society, please visit here.

The Leadership Institute is an educational foundation whose mission is to increase the number and effectiveness of conservative activists and leaders in the public policy process. To accomplish this, LI identifies, recruits, trains, and places conservatives in government, politics, and the media.  Since the Institute’s 1979 founding, more than 90,000 people have been trained (with half of those being in the last six years) in one or more of the 40 current programs offered in all 50 states and across the globe. For more information, please visit: http://www.leadershipinstitute.org.