Expanding Intellectual Diversity on N.C.’s Largest University Campus
Is there such a thing as a conservative intellectual? Drs. Stephen Margolis and Andrew Taylor, two long-time professors at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, are out to show N.C. State students the answer to that question is a resounding, “Yes.”
Their method: a groundbreaking campus program known as the Economic, Legal, and Political Foundations of Free Societies, now named NCSU Free and Open Societies. The multidisciplinary initiative explores the relationship between economics and politics in American life.
Teachers and students agree that the program broadens the array of ideas encountered by students by bringing well-respected speakers to campus, providing valuable undergraduate courses, facilitating student organizations, and funding graduate and faculty research.
“It’s fair to say that hundreds of students benefit from the program each year,” said Taylor, a political science professor in N.C. State’s School of Public and International Affairs, which houses the Political Science Department. “We’ve elevated the intellectual atmosphere on campus and diversified the ideas students are exposed to.”
The program, founded in 2004, is jointly run by the Department of Political Science and the Department of Economics at N.C. State, which is the largest university in the Tar Heel State. That collaboration has brought significant value to students, particularly those who hold a conservative or libertarian political philosophy.
The program touches a large number of students. A significant majority of undergraduates at N.C. State take at least an introductory course in economics. In addition, the university boasts nearly 700 undergraduate majors in political science.
Travis Fisher, an N.C. State graduate who now works as an economist for the Federal Energy Regulation Commission, was involved with the program between 2004 and 2006. He gives it high marks.
“The program is an invaluable way to expand intellectual diversity on campus and a great method for getting involved with a network of contemporary thinkers,” Fisher said.
Pope lecture series
A cornerstone of the N.C. State program is the annual John William Pope Lecture, which annually attracts top-notch academics and thinkers from across the nation.
“It gives the campus community access to some of the best minds in political science and economics, and elevates the university’s profile in the community,” Taylor said.
Free and open to the public, the lecture has featured such well-respected speakers as Dr. Vernon Smith, an economist and Nobel Laureate; David Frum, a journalist and former speechwriter for President George W. Bush; and Dr. Meghan O’Sullivan, the Jeane Kirkpatrick Professor of the Practice of International Affairs at Harvard University’s Kennedy School.
“These speakers might never come to campus were it not for the Pope support, because they command a significant honorarium,” Margolis said. “Students have shown lots of interest in turning out to hear what these thinkers have to say.”
‘Transformative’ support
The Foundation originally funded the N.C. State initiative in 2004 at a five-year commitment of $94,000 per year. A new five-year commitment of $140,000 per year began with the 2009-2010 fiscal year.
“The Pope Foundation’s stories has been transformative in so many different ways,” Taylor said. “A highly respected foundation is essentially saying that N.C. State University is a serious place, and its faculty and students are worth investing in. That kind of confidence only motivates us to become better.”