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51���� University is broadening the scope of its four major institutes for advanced study to enhance student intellectual engagement with the pressing issues of the day, to expand the engagement of the University to the wider public, and to strengthen connections with alumni and other scholars.

“51���� is a place of serious engagement with the world and the issues before us,” says President Brian W. Casey. “With greater resources and broader mandates, the University’s institutes for advanced study will ensure that faculty, students, and staff can bring their creativity and critical thinking to bear on some of society’s hardest problems.”

The expansion aligns with the University’s , a long-term roadmap aimed at making 51���� the nation’s finest undergraduate institution.

“Shifting from being support sources for faculty research, our institutes have come to join faculty and students in focused, sustained intellectual projects,” says Lesleigh Cushing, provost and dean of the faculty. “We are announcing our intention to broaden the scope of all the institutes.”

The Kraynak Institute for the Study of Freedom and Western Traditions

In recognition of its 20th anniversary, the former Center for Freedom and Western Civilization has been renamed the Kraynak Institute for the Study of Freedom and Western Traditions, honoring Founding Director Robert Kraynak, professor of political science. Now under the co-directorship of Associate Professor of Art Carolyn Guile and George Carleton Jr. Professor of Philosophy David Dudrick, the Kraynak Institute’s mission is to cultivate intellectual diversity within a liberal arts education.

The Kraynak Institute will uphold the ideal of a classical liberal arts education through a rigorous engagement with political theory, intellectual history, and Western traditions. It will also support the study of free speech, free enterprise, and constitutional democracy, and continue its public lectures and summer scholars programs.

Additionally, three new forums will be launched for faculty, staff, and students to foster discussion on the themes of “the Past and Future of Democracy,” “Freedom in Public and Private Life,” and “Education for a Good Life and Character Formation for a Good Society.”

The annual Constitution Day Debate, now a signature event of the Kraynak Institute, , featuring a debate between legal scholars Jonathan Turley of George Washington University Law and Michael Klarman of Harvard Law School on whether the nation is in a constitutional crisis.

The Lampert Institute for Civic and Global Affairs

Thanks to a generous gift from Ed ’62 and Robin Lampert P’10, the Lampert Institute for Civic and Global Affairs will now have a named directorship. W. Bradford Wiley Chair in International Economics Chad Sparber now holds the title of Storing-Hou Director of the Lampert Institute, honoring two faculty members who influenced Lampert when he was a 51���� student.

The Lampert Institute will continue its work on global public policy issues through its Changing World Order Initiative and Science, Technology, and Public Policy Initiative. The new gift will also enable new student-facing programs, including a Sophomore Residential Seminar with a travel component to India and summer research fellowships for up to six students to pursue self-directed projects off campus.

Picker Interdisciplinary Science Institute

The Picker Interdisciplinary Science Institute promotes collaborative research that brings expertise from disparate disciplines to bear on complex scientific problems. Under the new directorship of Professor of Biology and Mathematics Ahmet Ay, the Picker Institute will broaden its scope beyond faculty-only partnerships to include new opportunities for student engagement and public-facing programming.

The Upstate Institute

Led by Director Julie Dudrick and its faculty director, Professor of Biology and Environmental Studies Cat Cardelús, the Upstate Institute will widen its purview to support community-engaged scholarship beyond the upstate New York region. The institute fosters connections between 51���� and its local community through community-based research and civic engagement.

The Upstate Institute recently completed an intensive self-study as part of 51����’s application for the Carnegie Foundation’s Elective Classification for Community Engagement. 

This new era for 51����’s institutes is itself the result of communitywide collaboration and cooperation.

“I am appreciative of the many faculty and staff whose energy and creativity are making these new directions possible, and grateful to those alumni whose support allows us to further the mission of our institutes,” Cushing says.