Professor Abraham Unger has a unique vision for liberal arts education. Long before before spending a decade as Director of Urban Programs at Wagner College in New York, he was an undergraduate student concentrating on classical guitar at the prestigious Manhattan School of Music. In this episode of Higher Ed Now, he sits down with ACTA's Michael Poliakoff and Doug Sprei to reflect on the precarious condition of colleges and universities today, and explores the concept he is shaping for liberal arts education based on the conservatory model he experienced as an undergraduate.

Abraham Unger:  A Conservatory Model for Liberal Arts

Higher Ed Now is a production of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni. It is a podcast concerning issues and policy in America's higher education system.

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Immediately after she delivered an electrifying keynote speech at Pacific Lutheran University's Wang Symposium on March 7, 2024, ACTA's Doug Sprei interviewed Monica Guzman, the best-selling author of I Never Thought of It That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times. Ms. Guzman's influential work in the civil discourse movement has expanded through her leadership at Braver Angels for the past several years. More recently, she became the inaugural McGurn Fellow at the University of Florida, working with researchers at UF's College of Journalism and Communications to explore ways to employ the techniques described in her book to boost understanding and intellectual humility.

Mónica Guzmán: "People Hear Better When They're Heard"

John Bolton served as the 25th United States Ambassador to the United Nations from 2005 to 2006, and as the 26th United States National Security Advisor from 2018 to 2019 during the Trump Administration. He is the author of The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir, as well as Surrender Is Not An Option. Always an erudite figure in politics, Ambassador Bolton is an attorney, Republican consultant, political commentator, and a staunch defender of free expression. ACTA's President Michael Poliakoff spoke at length with Ambassador Bolton to explore his unique outlook on the trajectory of free speech at universities, his experience as a student in the 1960s, and the fundamental differences between that era and today with regard to free speech on campus.

John Bolton: The Long Decline of Free Expression on Campus

Dr Anika T. Prather is a nationally-recognized speaker and advocate for the relevancy of classical education for the Black community. She has served as a lecturer at Howard University’s Classics and English departments and, most recently, as a Director of High-Quality Curriculum and Instruction at the Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy. She has authored two books on Blacks and the classics: Living in the Constellation of the Canon: The Lived Experiences of African-American Students Reading Great Books Literature, a self-published book; and The Black Intellectual Tradition(with Dr. Angel Parham of UVA), as well as many articles. She is the founder of The Living Water School, a DC-area Christian and classically-inspired for independent learning. In her free time, she’s also a jazz musician and fiber artist.   In a conversation with ACTA President Michael Poliakoff and Academic Affairs Fellow Veronica Mayer Bryant, Dr. Prather discusses the relevance and inclusivity of a classical education, her perspective on faith and learning, and how classical education prepares students for college and human flourishing. 

Anika Prather: “Classical Education Helps Everyone Flourish”

Tony Banout, Executive Director, and Tom Ginsburg, Faculty Director of the University of Chicago's New Forum for Free Inquiry and Expression join Steve McGuire, ACTA's Paul and Karen Levy Fellow in Campus Freedom, to discuss institutional neutrality -- the idea that universities should not take official positions on social and political controversies. While explaining how this position supports the truth-seeking purpose of the university and free expression on campus, they also explore its history at the University of Chicago, tracing it from the 1967 Kalven Report to the University's founding. Finally, they discuss various exceptions to the rule and times when universities might be obligated to speak up, even while adhering to a general policy of institutional neutrality.

Why Institutional Neutrality Matters

ACTA's President Michael Poliakoff joins Paul Levy, a member of ACTA's board of directors and the creator of the Levy Forum for Open Discourse at the Palm Beach Synagogue. Together they interview Dr. Glenn Loury, the Merton P. Stoltz Professor of the Social Sciences in the Department of Economics at Brown University. Dr. Loury is one of the nation's leading social critics on topics of racial inequality, the Black family, affirmative action, and identity politics.

Abraham Unger: A Conservatory Model for Liberal Arts

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