CAU Events

In 2007, the Center for the American University hosted seven public events. Our main event was a conference marking the 20th anniversary of Allan Bloom's seminal book, The Closing of the American Mind, which lamented the decline of scholarly rigor and free inquiry in universities. The conference featured scholars such as Peter Berkowitz, Mark Steyn, Robert George, and the Manhattan Institute's Jim Piereson and Heather Mac Donald. [Watch video].

Other CAU events in 2007 addressed the pressing problem of today's universities by featuring speakers from all segments of the academy, such as:

John Tomasi, director, Political Theory Project, Brown University. Professor Tomasi's luncheon speech provided a firsthand account of how the Political Theory Project is reshaping Brown's culture and inspiring students to consider ideas that are currently lacking in academia.

Martin Kramer, Wexler Fromer Fellow, Washington Institute for Near East Policy and Senior Fellow, Olin Institute, Harvard University. Mr. Kramer exposed the hollow research and questionable allegiances of many Middle Eastern studies programs.

Hank Brown, president, University of Colorado and former U.S. senator. Brown described how he successfully enacted substantial reforms at UC, while at the same time elevating the intellectual conversation on campus.

2009 Events

January 8, 2009
CAU was proud to host Dr. Mark Bauerlein, of Emory University, who presented his newest book The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future. Drawing upon exhaustive research, detailed portraits, and historical and social analysis, The Dumbest Generation presents an uncompromisingly realistic study of the young American mind at this critical juncture. The book also lays out a compelling vision of how we might address its deficiencies.

February 5, 2009
CAU hosted a conference titled, "New Institutional Forms in Higher Education," to address the role of the university in modern society. Panel discussants looked back at the evolution of the modern university, beginning with its European roots in the 13th century, and examined current trends in higher education as a basis for looking into the future. Participants included Charles Harper, James Ceaser, James Piereson, Anthony Kronman, Charles Murrary, and John Leo. The keynote address was given by David Gelernter of Yale University and the American Enterprise Institute.

May 5, 2009
CAU welcomed Donald Downs of the University of Wisconsin to present his paper, Threats to Academic Freedom: Do Campuses and Courts Care?. Downs offered guidance for deciding when and where academic freedom rightly applies, drawing on his own experience as a professor and consultant on academic freedom issues.

2008 Events

February 6th, 2008
Dr. Michael Crow, president of Arizona State University. President Crow's talk, "The Death of the Public University and Why it is Time for a New Model," presents his vision of the "public university." For over 200 years, public universities have been the facilitators of the American dream, opening the doors of economic opportunity and advancement. Today, that historic role is threatened. Dr. Crow discussed what this means for America's future, as countries like India and China, recognizing the importance of a highly educated workforce, outstrip our ability to produce workers qualified for a global, knowledge-based economy.

David Ignatius of the Washington Post described President Crow thusly: "Listening to the parade of the presidential candidates repeating bromides about how to fix what's broken in America, I wish I could charter a bus and bring them all here to meet the man who is actually fixing things—Michael Crow, the iconoclastic president of the Arizona State University."

April 7th, 2008
The CAU was pleased to host acclaimed author, columnist, and former professor of classics, Victor Davis Hanson, who spoke about what's gone wrong with American higher education and how to improve it. According to Professor Hanson, much of the contemporary failure of the university—the rise of a therapeutic mindset, the spread of vocationalism, the ubiquity of political correctness, and the intrusion of popular culture into the curriculum—can be understood as a rejection of both traditional classical education and the values of the Greeks.

April 14th, 2008
The CAU and the Moving Picture Institute hosted the New York premiere of the documentary Indoctrinate U. Directed by Evan Coyne Maloney, Indoctrinate U exposes the stunning intolerance, rampant viewpoint discrimination, and broad disrespect for free inquiry on college and university campuses across the nation. The film has been praised as a hard-hitting investigation into the true nature of modern higher education.

MindingTheCampus.com editor John Leo joined CAU senior fellow David DesRosiers in a discussion after the film.

May 29th, 2008
The CAU welcomes author and Yale Law School professor Anthony T. Kronman, author of Education's End: Why Our Colleges and Universities Have Given Up on the Meaning of Life. Kronman's book contrasts an earlier era in American education, when the question of the meaning of life was at the center of instruction, with our own time, when college and university teachers have largely abandoned this question. In particular, teachers of the humanities—who once felt a special responsibility to guide their students in exploring the great questions of living—have lost confidence in their authority to do so.