Policy Forum 

# Private Funding, Public Debate: Reviving the Spirit of Inquiry in Higher Education 

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Date and Time 

February 5, 2015 5 - 6:45 PM EST 

Location 

Hayek Auditorium 

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##### Featuring 

Featuring **C. Bradley Thompson**, Executive Director, Clemson Institute for the Study of Capitalism, Clemson University; **Christopher Hill**, Fellow, The Alexander Hamilton Institute for the Study of Western Civilization; **John A. Allison**, President and CEO, Cato Institute, and former Chairman and CEO, BB&T Corporation; and **Jay Schalin**, Director of Policy Analysis, John W. Pope Center for Higher Education Policy; moderated by **Neal McCluskey**, Associate Director, Center for Educational Freedom, Cato Institute. 

Colleges often seem hostile to, or at least uninterested in, Western civilization, free markets, and other “conservative” or “libertarian” subjects. This has left a void that is increasingly being filled by privately funded academic centers founded in or near colleges and universities. But how objective are such centers? Do their donors call all the shots? Can they significantly widen inquiry in academia? Please join Cato and the John W. Pope Center for Higher Education Policy for an in-depth discussion of this growing phenomenon.

Download “[Renewal in the University: How Academic Centers Restore the Spirit of Inquiry](http://www.popecenter.org/acrobat/pope_articles/centers_report-lores-final-rev.pdf),” by the Pope Center’s Jay Schalin.

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