Campus Republicans had the chance on Saturday afternoon, to chat with David L. Horowitz, the man in the middle of campus controversies nationwide, after the publication of his book and advertisement, both entitled, "10 Reasons Why Reparations for Slavery is a Bad Idea, and Racist Too."

"I am elevating the reparations issue to center stage. It [reparations] is a dumb idea. I am giving a piece of friendly advice to the Left," Horowitz said to a medium-sized audience in the Science Center, few of whom were Harvard students.

Horowitz was one of seven speakers in a two-day-long conference sponsored by the non-Harvard affiliated group Accuracy in Academia, an organization formed to, according to its brochure "arm students with the truth that schools fail to provide."

Representatives from Massachusetts-wide campus Republican Clubs joined a handful of Harvard students and various other conservative supporters to contemplate "Prospects for Conservative Ideas in Higher Learning," the title of the Accuracy in Academia conference.

The thrust of the conference was to talk openly about conservative ideas that conference participants worry are not vocalized on college campuses nationwide.

Horowitz said that ideas about race that may conflict with mainstream beliefs are often not expressed on primarily liberal campuses.

"In terms of people's ability to express ideas, this is racial McCarthyism. Everyone is afraid of being labeled a racist," Horowitz said.

As part of what he called his "freedom tour of college campuses," Horowitz said that colleges in the Unites States are "run like medieval institutions."