Friday, November 7, 2025

Today, Condoleezza Rice delivers the annual Stephen A. Ogden Jr. Memorial Lecture at Brown University, speaking to students about her own early decision to pursue music and then Sovietology, the value of American research universities, and her own career in public service. David L. Leal asks what things would be like if conservatives dominated American universities. And Elisa Zhai Autry argues the US must support China’s beleaguered Christian community.

Higher Education

Condoleezza Rice Discusses Foreign Policy, Research Universities, and an Accomplished Career

Hoover Institution Director Condoleezza Rice delivered the annual Stephen A. Ogden Jr. Memorial Lecture at Brown University on November 5, speaking to students about her early decision to pursue music and then Sovietology, the value of American research universities, and her own career in public service. She spoke about her dealings with Russian President Vladimir Putin, her hopes for a lasting peace for Israel and a responsible Palestinian state, and why American research universities are still worthy of support. She said universities house researchers who can commit themselves to answering questions commercial entities do not have the time or desire to answer, and that is still valuable to America. Read more here.

What If Conservatives Dominated Higher Education?

For Education Next, Senior Fellow David L. Leal asks: What if conservatives dominated the faculty of America’s universities? If that were the case, Leal asks what sort of opportunities for evaluating the makeup of higher education that scenario would offer the remaining progressive professors to evaluate their own situation. “Progressive faculty members in an overwhelmingly conservative academia would have a range of conceptual tools that could be used to question whether the status quo was biased against progressives,” he writes. But such a future is a long way off, with Leal citing a recent UCLA survey that found far left faculty outnumber conservative professors in America by as much as five-to-one. Leal says change in this setting that would steer things toward a balance must begin with adjustments to how universities conduct hiring. Read more here.

Confronting and Competing with China

China’s Christians are America’s Allies

For Freedom Frequency, Research Fellow Elisa Zhai Autry writes about the plight of China’s Christian community and ways the United States can reach out to and support them. While US policy has often ignored the plight of China’s Christians, whose leaders are often imprisoned, Autry says US outreach could help China’s Christians serve as a bulwark against corruption and coercive measures by the Chinese Communist Party. She says Chinese Christians could become “likely architects of a future post-authoritarian China.” She says the US should strengthen ties with church groups in China and champion free speech rights online to counter Chinese efforts at digital repression of faith communities.Read more here.

California

Could The Palisades Fire Have Been Prevented, Perhaps at a Cost of Nearly Zero?

Over at California on Your Mind, Senior Fellow Lee Ohanian explores a new after-action report released about the Los Angeles Fire Department’s response to the January 2025 Palisades Fire. He focuses on a part of the report that speaks to an earlier fire, the Lachman Fire, which was supposedly extinguished on the morning of January 1, 2025, well before Palisades started. Ohanian cites reports in the Los Angeles Times that crews departing the Lachman Fire expressed concern that it was still smoldering but were ignored by their commanders. “Just a few days later, strong Santa Ana winds turned the apparently still smoldering Lachman Fire into the Palisades Fire," Ohanian writes. "One firefighter wrote afterwards: ‘And the rest is history.’.” Read more here.

Reforming K–12 Education

Cutting the Cord: Early Evidence on Cellphone Policy Implementation

A new article by Alicia Anderson at the Fordham Institute reviews early research into the growing number of student cell phone restrictions implemented at US schools. She cites the work of Visiting Fellow David Figlio and a coauthor who explored the impact of a new cellphone policy at one school district in Florida. Using demographic, testing, discipline, and attendance data from before and after the ban was implemented, Figlio’s working paper found that the “ban significantly increased student test scores, reduced unexcused absence rates,” but temporarily “increased . . . disciplinary incidents.” Read more here.