Higher Ed Now American Council of Trustees and Alumni

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.

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. 

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.

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.

George Will is a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and political commentator whose twice-weekly column has appeared in the Washington Post since 1974. His works cover subjects ranging from baseball to statecraft. In this episode, he sits down with ACTA President Michael Poliakoff for a sweeping conversation on the state of American higher education. From the fact that American English majors can now graduate without having ever read The Bard, to how the free market is regulating the production of Ph.D.’s and the stark difference between being highly educated and highly credentialed, Will offers biting and erudite remedies on how to bring about a course correction in higher education.  

Jay Bhattacharya is a professor at Stanford University Medical School, a physician, epidemiologist, health economist, and public health policy expert focusing on infectious diseases and vulnerable populations. During the Covid pandemic, Dr. Bhattacharya co-wrote the Great Barrington Declaration, which advocated for a “focused protection” approach in pandemic policy. His public stance against “lockdowns” won him both plaudits and criticism from policymakers, lawmakers, academics, and scientists. ACTA’s Steven McGuire interviews Dr. Bhattacharya on his experience of being in the eye of the COVID public health policy storm and the light it casts upon the state of free expression in higher education.