Higher Ed Now

ACTA Senior Research Fellow Kyle Beltramini welcomes back Emily Rounds, Senior Higher Education Policy Advisor at Third Way, to dissect the possibility of massive changes to accreditation.  Mr. Beltramini and Ms. Rounds evaluate the proposed regulatory changes brought up during the meeting of the Department of Education's accreditation committee, NACIQI.  They discuss and debate the nuances of key issues like the Trump Administration's attempt to revoke the American Bar Association's accrediting status, a proposal to allow universities to maintain multiple accreditors, a revamp of transfer credit rules, and more. 

ACTA President Michael Poliakoff welcomes Ryan Bangert, Senior Vice President at the Alliance Defending Freedom and Visiting Instructor in Law at the University of Austin at Texas. He specializes in the American constitutional tradition of religious liberty. From the emergence of religious beliefs as an inalienable right, to the evolution of our understanding of freedom of religion 250 years into the American experiment, the conversation traces the past, present, and future of religious liberty in the United States.  

ACTA President Michael Poliakoff welcomes Dr. Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, president emeritus of George Washington University and member of ACTA's National Commission on American History and Civic Education. A distinguished university leader, Dr. Trachtenberg examines the systemic breakdown of American history education in America. He and Dr. Poliakoff explore the potential for reform, highlighting how university leaders, law associations, and governing boards can reinstate essential history requirements while avoiding the pitfalls of heavy-handed legislative control. 

On this episode of Higher Ed Now Civics Edition, ACTA President Michael Poliakoff moderates a bracing and illuminating conversation with Lt. General H.R. McMaster, the Fouad and Michelle Ajami Senior Fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution and former U.S. National Security Advisor, and Dr. John Hillen, Executive-in-Residence in Duke University's Political Science Department and Distinguished Lecturing Fellow at the university's Center for Politics. Our guests discuss American military history and strategic vision within the context of American self-governance and civilian control of the military. They emphasize that this understanding is the foundation of informed patriotism. Both are members of ACTA's National Commission on American History and Civic Education and contributors to an upcoming volume of essays on what every college student should know about American history and government. A very special video version of this episode is available on YouTube now!   

On this episode of Higher Ed Now Civics Edition, ACTA President Michael Poliakoff speaks with Vincent Phillip Muñoz, the Tocqueville Professor of Political Science and Concurrent Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame as well as the Founding Director of Notre Dame's Center for Citizenship & Constitutional Government. Professor Muñoz is also the author of the 2022 book, Religious Liberty and the American Founding: Natural Rights and the Original Meanings of the First Amendment Religion. The lively conversation covers the conflicts over religion that shook the Founders, separation of church and state, and the perils of student self-censorship in today's academy. A very special video version of this episode is available on YouTube now!