“The Idea of the American University” is the topic a three day interdisciplinary conference being held at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe. Sponsored by the Center for Political and Economic Thought in cooperation with the Alex G. McKenna School of Business, Economics, and Government at Saint Vincent College, the event will be held Thursday through Saturday, April 2-4, 2009. Ten speakers will be featured at the program, which will begin at 7:30 on Thursday with John Agresto, Former Acting Chancellor and Provost at the University of Iraq in Sulaimani and Visiting Fellow in the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University. Mr. Agresto’s topic will be “One Cheer for the Liberal Arts…Maybe Two”. The conference will continue on Friday with speakers and topics that include Michael P. Foley, Associate Professor of Patristics in the Honors College at Baylor University, whose topic is “Saint Augustine, The University, and The So-Called Liberal Arts”; William Mathie, Professor of Political Science at Brock University, whose topic is “Socrates in America”; Susan E. Hanssen, Associate Professor of History at the University of Dallas, who is speaking on “Eccentric Education-The American Way”; and Peter Wood, Executive Director of the National Association of Scholars, whose topic is “Roller of Big Cigars: The American University as Cheerful Mortician”. Afternoon speakers will include Gary D. Glenn, Distinguished Teaching Professor Emeritus in the Department of Political Science at Northern Illinois University, whose topic is “From Civilization Memory and the Upward Lifting of Souls, To Upward Mobility, to Upending Social Mores: The Going Down of Univsersity Education in One Professor’s Lifetime”; and Mark Henrie, Vice President of Academic Affairs at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, whose topic is “The End of the American Core Curriculum”. The conference will conclude on Saturday with speakers William B. Allen, Professor of Political Science at Michigan State University, whose topic is “Now That College is the New High School, Where Do We Go to Get an Education?”, followed by Peter Lawler, Dana Professor and Chair of the Department of Government and International Studies at Berry College, whose topic is “Dignity and Higher Education Today”, and Fr. James Schall, SJ, Professor in the Government Department of Georgetown University, whose topic is “Universitas Sine Universo: On the Home of Truth When There is No Truth”
