It has been an extraordinary year in higher education, and HxA’s 2024 Conference on June 6-8 in Chicago was extraordinary too. Over 400 hundred Heterodox Academy members and friends representing some 250 institutions convened for three days of workshops, panel discussions, plenary lectures—with lots of time for discussions with friends, professional networking, serious thinking, and just plain fun.

In my opening address at the conference, I discussed the State of the Academy—our system of universities and colleges, and of Heterodox Academy itself.

The theme of HxA’s last conference, held two summers ago in Denver, was Restoring Trust. This year, I reminded audience members of a Gallup Poll from last summer, which showed a dramatic erosion of public trust in higher education. Remarkably, that poll was taken a few months before the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct 7, and the annus horribilus for higher education that ensued. Few expect this years’ data to show any improvement in the public’s trust.

But not all the news was grim. I also noted that there are strong signs of the tactical tide turning in HxA’s direction. Most notable are the events from “Revolutionary Boston,” where, in the span of just a few weeks, MIT announced their decision to stop requiring DEI statements in hiring and promotion, and Harvard adopted a policy of neutrality on institutional statements, which closely mirrors the HxA Model of Statement Neutrality. Harvard followed up the next week by joining MIT in dropping DEI statements across its largest school too. Bravo MIT! Bravo, twice, to Harvard too!

The theme of this year’s conference was Principles in Action, and when I turned to discuss the activities of Heterodox Academy, there was much action to report.

In the two years since the Denver conference, membership has risen by 47%. Our Campus Community Network, launched in December 2023, has grown to 50 communities in three countries—with plans to launch many more this fall. (Interested in starting a Campus Community at your university? Learn more here.)

In August of 2023, with a generous lead grant from the Templeton Religious Trust, HxA opened the Center for Academic Pluralism in our HxA’s new office suite in Times Square. The Center hosts a group of Visiting Fellows each year, who spend their residence researching, discussing and writing about topics related to open inquiry.

By January, a transformative gift from the Mike and Sofia Segal Foundation enabled us to supercharge the activities of the now elegantly renamed Segal Center for Academic Pluralism. This gift enabled HxA to substantially grow our team of research and policy specialists.

Other activities I mentioned at the conference include: the creation of HxA’s Speakers Bureau, the launch of a collaborative initiative between HxA and Bridge USA (made possible by a generous grant from the Arthur Vining Davis Foundation), and a dedicated push regarding open inquiry in STEM (supported by Schmidt Futures).

To close the keynote, we recast HxA’s traditional Open Inquiry Awards presentation as the Heterodox Academy Awards Ceremony to celebrate this year’s winners—with Academy Awards spoofings, (including drum rolls, the opening of “and-the-winner-is” envelopes, and commentary on the couture of the Academy Members in the audience– “professorial” was the verdict). It was a fun twist, and we plan to expand the concept. Keep your eyes open for more announcements from “The Academy” when we begin the selection process for next year’s Open Inquiry Award winners.

Across three days of thought-provoking programming, we heard from university presidents about the need for principled leadership; esteemed scholars about the threats to the future functioning of our universities; HxA co-founder Jon Haidt and long-time member and employee Musa al-Gharbi in conversation; and from so many of our members across 25 breakout sessions.

My favorite moment from the conference occurred in a hallway during a break between sessions. A person wearing a new member badge approached me and introduced himself as Walter Sterling, the incoming president of St. John’s College. He’d joined HxA the week before and decided to come to the conference to learn more. As we were talking, Brian Casey, president of Colgate University stopped by and the three of us discussed the state of higher education.

It is a sign of the times, and perhaps of HxA’s rising importance, that college presidents from places like Colgate and St. John’s—without any specific outreach from us—spontaneously showed up at this year’s conference.

And on that note, I’m delighted to tell you that HxA’s 2025 Conference will be held in New York City on June 23-25. Whether you come spontaneously, or as a result of this outreach, we hope you will mark your calendars now, and join us in New York next year.

As always, thank you for supporting Heterodox Academy.