National Association of Scholars Discuss Obama
Last week, the National Association of Scholars (NAS) held a conference in the nation’s capital called “The Changing Landscape of American Higher Education.” Speakers included Abigail Thernstrom, co-author of No Excuses: Closing the Racial Gap in Learning; the American Civil Rights Institute’s Ward Connerly, author of Lessons from My Uncle James; NAS’s Peter Wood, author of Diversity: Invention of a Concept; and Victor Davis Hanson, author, blogger, and columnist.
The panelists discussed such topics as the contrast between government’s impulse to regulate and rapidly changing technology, and “Are the Dorms Being Politicized?”
According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, attendees have “big hopes” that the incoming biracial president will improve race relations and protect freedom of speech on college campuses. For example, Thernstrom said she sees Obama’s election as a symbol of whites willing to treat blacks as equals. Perhaps the races will experience less separation (in the form of race-based groups and racially segregated dorms) and more openness toward one another.
Foundation for Individual Rights in Education president Greg Lukianoff said he hope that Obama, a former constitutional law professor, will support students’ right to free speech.
Obama’s presidency has the potential to either improve race relations by disproving the notion that America is a racist country or worsen race relations if he chooses to focus on what divides us rather than what unites us.
