How Universities Lost the Public—and How to Win Them Back
This episode was originally published by Heterodox Academy's Out Loud with John Tomasi.
In this episode, we are joined by Benjamin and Jenna Storey, renowned scholars, co-authors, and directors at the American Enterprise Institute’s Program on the Future of the American University. Together with host John Tomasi, they undertake a searching examination of the forces eroding confidence in universities and offer a roadmap for rebuilding their legitimacy and civic purpose.
The conversation draws on the Storeys’ personal journeys through academia, they explore how universities have shifted away from their civic mission, the implications of declining viewpoint diversity, and the urgent need to re-envision liberal education in a polarized era. Their discussion critically engages with recent initiatives, including the founding of university-level Schools of Civic Thought, and emphasizes both the perils and promise of institutional reform amidst increasing political and public scrutiny.
Read the report: “Civic: A Proposal for University Level Civic Education” (AEI, December 2023)
Pursuit of Happiness
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The Civitas Institute Poll, conducted from March 11-20, 2025, asked 1,200 Americans an array of questions about how things are going in the country.
The Next Californias
Colorado, Washington, and Oregon have adopted many of the policies contributing to the Golden State’s decline.
The Moral Collapse on Campus Is a Result of the Hollowing Out of the Humanities
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The French Origins of Urban Renewal
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Diversity, Real and Imposed
Diversity imposed drowns human spontaneity and the shades and gradations of man’s mysterious existence into heartless uniformity, bearing no pulses or imaginations.
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