The 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cColgate is a place of serious engagement with the world and the issues before us,\u201d says President Brian W. Casey. \u201cWith greater resources and broader mandates, the University\u2019s institutes for advanced study will ensure that faculty, students, and staff can bring their creativity and critical thinking to bear on some of society\u2019s hardest problems.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The expansion aligns with the University\u2019s Third-Century Plan<\/em>, a long-term road map aimed at making Colgate the nation\u2019s finest undergraduate institution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI 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,\u201d says Lesleigh Cushing, provost and dean of the faculty. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 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\u2019s mission is to cultivate intellectual diversity within a liberal arts education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Additionally, three new forums will be launched for faculty, staff, and students to foster discussion on the themes of \u201cthe Past and Future of Democracy,\u201d \u201cFreedom in Public and Private Life,\u201d and \u201cEducation for a Good Life and Character Formation for a Good Society.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The annual Constitution Day Debate, a signature event of the Kraynak Institute, was held on Sept. 18, 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thanks to a generous gift from Ed \u201962 and Robin Lampert P\u201910, 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 Colgate student.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Led by Director Julie Dudrick and its faculty director, Professor of Biology and Environmental Studies Cat Cardel\u00fas, the Upstate Institute will widen its purview to support community-engaged scholarship beyond the upstate New York region. The institute fosters connections between Colgate and its local community through community-based research and civic engagement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pictured: Zemira Meade \u201926 presented her Upstate Institute Summer Field School research about poverty issues in Madison County.<\/em> Photo by Mark DiOrio<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The 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. \u201cColgate is a place of serious engagement with the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1260,"featured_media":19220,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"coauthors":[135],"class_list":["post-19219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scene"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/palXSH-4ZZ","amp_enabled":false,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/01\/072525_poster_MDD_228.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1260"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19219"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19219\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21644,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19219\/revisions\/21644"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19219"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=19219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The Kraynak Institute for the Study of Freedom and Western Traditions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The Lampert Institute for Civic and Global Affairs<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Picker Interdisciplinary Science Institute<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The Upstate Institute<\/h2>\n\n\n\n