 Once upon a time, universities were the ultimate forum of ideas. Today however, college campuses have become the most intolerant places for diverse and even conventional viewpoints. The First Amendment, intellectual freedom, and the very idea of free speech are under attack with threats, bans, and even violence.
A growing number of Americans don’t even believe you have the right to speak your mind if what you have to say might offend someone, somewhere. They advocate for campuses to be “safe spaces” in which open debate and discussions are not allowed. This disturbing movement has now been extending beyond colleges and into the wider world. Will we all be silenced for expressing ideas that may not conform with the politically correct? And what can be done to restore constitutional and civil liberties?
The acclaimed new film No Safe Spaces from producer Mark Joseph (Reagan, Max Rose, and Silence Patton) and director Justin Folk, stars comedian Adam Carolla (host of the #1 rated podcast, PodcastOne) and radio talk show host Dennis Prager as they travel the country, talk with experts on the right and left, tour college campuses, and work to understand what is happening in America today and what free speech should look like.
With the help of a wide range of public figures including Tim Allen, Jordan Peterson, Sharyl Attkinson, Alan Dershowitz, Ben Shapiro, Van Jones, Candace Owens, Dave Rubin, Ann Coulter and Cornel West, No Safe Spaces explores why the free exchange of ideas is fundamental to a free society, and the attacks on the First Amendment are attacks upon the foundations of America itself.
This special event will feature a private screening of the film along with a panel of experts with audience Q&A to discuss the issues involved.
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Schedule:
Thursday, November 7, 2019
6:00 p.m.: Wine and Hors d’Oeuvres Reception
6:30 p.m.: Screening of the new film No Safe Spaces
8:10 p.m.: Panel and Q&A
Where:
Independent Institute Conference Center
100 Swan Way
Oakland, CA 94621
Map and directions
Free Parking!
Tickets:
Regular Admission: $30 or $20 for Independent Institute Members*
Student Admission: $10 (with student I.D.)
Special Book Discount:
Add $20 for a copy of Restoring the Promise: Higher Education in America, by Richard K. Vedder (31% Discount!)
RSVP required: Limited Seating
Early registration is recommended, please reserve your tickets today!
If you have a disability or need special accommodation, please let us know at the time that you reserve seats; we're glad to assist.
*Become a Member with a minimum $50 Annual gift for discounted tickets to all Independent Policy Forums.
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 Michael W. McConnell is the Richard and Frances Mallery Professor and Director of the Constitutional Law Center at Stanford Law School, and a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. Professor McConnell has served as a Circuit Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, held chaired professorships at the University of Chicago and the University of Utah, as well as visiting professorships at Harvard and New York Universities, and served as law clerk to Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, Jr.
In the past decade, his work has been cited in opinions of the U. S. Supreme Court second most often of any legal scholar, and he has argued fifteen cases in the Supreme Court.
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 Gregory R. Michael is a litigation associate at Dhillon Law Group Inc. where he has been involved in numerous constitutional and civil liberties litigation cases, including the landmark First Amendment case of Young America’s Foundation et al. v. Napolitano et al. (U.S. District Court, Northern District of California) against the University of California at Berkeley.
His practice focuses primarily on complex civil litigation matters, including individual and class actions arising under the First and Fourteenth Amendments, commercial litigation, intellectual property, and employment litigation. He received his J.D., cum laude, from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law.
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 Matt Ronnau has been at the center of the campus Free Speech Movement that won the landmark federal court ruling against the University of California at Berkeley (UCB) for blocking speakers on campus (Young America’s Foundation et al. v. Napolitano et al., U.S. District Court, Northern District of California). Justice Department official Jesse Panuccio applauded the settlement, calling it a “win for protecting free speech on public college campuses.”
A senior in statistics at UCB, Mr. Ronnau serves as President of the Berkeley College Republicans, Chairman of the California Federation of College Republicans, and Bay Area Vice Chair of the California College Republicans.
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 Graham H. Walker is Executive Director at the Independent Institute. He received his Diplôme in political theory from the Institut Universitaire de Hautes Études Internationales in Geneva and Ph.D. in public law and government from the University of Notre Dame.
Dr. Walker has served as Associate Professor of Politics at Catholic University of America, Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania, Visiting Scholar in Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton), Vice President for Academic Affairs at Oklahoma Wesleyan University, Visiting Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, President at Patrick Henry College, and Legislative Aide to former Congressman David Stockman. He is the author of the books, Moral Foundations of Constitutional Thought and The Ethics of F. A. Hayek.
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Restoring The Promise
Higher Education in America
“In his book Restoring the Promise, Richard Vedder continues in his role as the conscience of modern higher education. Readers will have to determine their own answers, but Dr. Vedder is asking all the right questions.”
—Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr., President, Purdue University; former Governor, State of Indiana
“Richard Vedder is a major national resource on higher education. No one knows it better—especially what is wrong with it, why and how it got to be wrong, and how and where we might make it right, or at least better. In Restoring the Promise, Vedder chronicles higher education’s waste, duplication, overpricing, and broken promises. So much wrong and so many misrepresentations for so much money!! . . .Thorough, scholarly, probative and revealing.”
—William J. Bennett, former Secretary, U.S. Department of Education; former Chairman, National Endowment for the Humanities
“If you truly want to understand the current crises in American higher education, start with Restoring the Promise, a masterful and eye-opening work of analysis and diagnosis.”
—Alan Charles Kors, Henry Charles Lea Professor Emeritus of History, University of Pennsylvania; Co-Founder and former Chairman, Foundation for Individual Rights in Education; and co-author (with Harvey A. Silvergate), The Shadow University: The Betrayal of Liberty on America's Campuses
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