Understanding the "Marketplace of Ideas"
A closer look at the importance of the university
By Kevin Belgrave

"There's the real world and then there's the university campus." So quipped lawyer David Brown at the recent National Campus Life Network (NCLN) National Symposium for university and college pro-life students. Although he was speaking specifically of student politics, I think his comments can help us understand some other important realities of campus pro-life work.

Far more than a simple question of involving more "youth" in our work, the campuses-in particular our university campuses-are in and of themselves an incredibly important environment for a strong pro-life presence. Why is this? So many things come to mind as I reflect on the experiences of just one year, but here I hope to give you just a general sense.

Away from their parents and homes for the first time, students are exposed to ideas that will shape a significant portion of their lives. Some will lose faith, others will gain it stronger than ever. Many more, unaccustomed to critical thought, as I was, will simply go along with the flow. More often than not, it is at university that students are first exposed in a concrete way to the pervasive ideas of "post-modernism"-ideas that openly reject objective reality and truth and embrace a relative concept of human value. It often seems that wherever you turn, the true dignity of the human being is degraded, mocked, or simply dismissed, usually by regular people with no malicious intent whatsoever. Left uncontested for four or more full years, how can we be surprised when these attitudes and ideas become firmly rooted in our future doctors, teachers, and lawyers, not to mention our mothers, fathers, and families?

To add to this, students are anxious to form new friendship groups and are understandably not always ready to "rock the boat" by speaking out on campus. Senior students graduate, and groups are weakened or even wiped out when their leaders move on. All too often, momentum and experience are wiped out at the same time, and a difficult process of re-inventing the wheel begins.

A fairly bleak picture may seem to be emerging, but do know that this is far from being a complete understanding of the situation. Some of the very things that make campus pro-life work difficult are actually the very same things that also make it, in many ways, the simplest to carry out. Consider, for instance, the turnover of students. With an annual set of new students coming in, the same posters, brochures, or training sessions can be equally effective year after year. There is also no other place where you will have relatively easy and inexpensive access to the people who need to hear your message. Even a small run of well designed posters can create waves, and access to the school paper is not always as difficult as it may seem.

So how does the National Campus Life Network fit into this picture? Our work is to collect and pass on resources and experience from group to group and year to year and so act as a stabilizing force in this transitory environment. We were formed to facilitate communication between pro-life students across Canada and encourage them to take up the cause at their school. Interestingly enough, it really does not take a lot to see incredible results. I can attest to this myself. In this sense, we are perhaps more fortunate than many other pro-life groups working so hard to impact their community.

However little it may take, though, it does take someone. One full-time NCLN volunteer makes an almost incalculable difference to our effectiveness. When pro-lifers on campus see that fellow students or recent graduates care that they get the message out and are willing to help them do it, this alone can often provide all the motivation necessary.

Our recent Symposium is testimony to this. We certainly made every effort to set up a solid program to educate and equip students to defend their views, but in the end this could in no way match the motivation, ideas, and strategy generated from the many discussions, both formal and informal, held among the students themselves.

As a final note, I offer sincere thanks to all the pro-life groups who have supported us so generously over these past five years. NCLN suffers in many ways from the same weakening effect of student turnover as do the groups we work to help. We change directors almost every year-not an easy reality to live with-but with your unfailing confidence and support, this has not sunk us yet, and I hope it never will.

Kevin Belgrave is Executive Director of National Campus Life Network.