On Thursday, 5 February, the Cato Institute, one of this country’s premier libertarian think tanks, hosted a policy forum “Private Funding, Public Debate: Reviving the Spirit of Inquiry in Higher Education.” Discussion centered on a report “Renewal in the University: How Academic Centers Restore the Spirit of Inquiry,” written by Jay Schalin, Director of Policy Analysis, John W. Pope Center for Higher Education Policy in Raleigh, North Carolina. The report not only contains considerable praise for the accomplishments of the Alexander Hamilton Institute for the Study of Western Civilization (AHI), but features a picture of AHI headquarters on the cover.
Invited panelists included AHI Fellow Dr. Christopher Hill, Mr. Schalin, C. Bradley Thompson, Executive Director, Clemson Institute for the Study of Capitalism, Clemson University; and John A. Allison, President and CEO, Cato Institute and former Chairman and CEO, BB&T Corporation. Neal McCluskey, Associate Director, Center for Educational Freedom, Cato Institute, moderated the discussion.
“Colleges often seem hostile to, or at least uninterested in, Western civilization, free markets, and other ‘conservative’ or ‘libertarian’ subjects,” noted the Cato Institute in advertising the event. “This has left a void that is increasingly being filled by privately funded academic centers founded in or near colleges and universities. The forum speakers discussed topics such as: How objective are such centers? Do their donors call all the shots? Can they significantly widen inquiry in academia?”
To download video of this event, please click here.
The event was also reported on in an article by The College Fix on February 6, 2015.
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