Thomas Lindsay (academic)

Last updated

Thomas Lindsay
Thomas Lindsay walking cropped.jpg
Lindsay walking through protest of a Shimer College board meeting in 2010
Born
Thomas Kevin Lindsay
NationalityAmerican
TitlePresident of Shimer College (2009–2010)
Scholarly background
Alma mater BA Northern Illinois University, MA and PhD, University of Chicago
Thesis Aristotle on Democracy (1989)

Thomas Kevin Lindsay is an American academic who briefly served as President of Shimer College. [1] He was the Deputy Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities until December 2008. He was also the Director of the NEH We the People initiative, which funds programs, research and other activities that explore significant events and themes in US history and culture, and advance knowledge of the principles that define America. He serves as the Director of the Center for Higher Education at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank.

Contents

Early academic career

Lindsay received his Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Chicago. His research has focused largely on the relation of democracy and education. His articles have appeared in the American Political Science Review , The Journal of Politics , and the American Journal of Political Science .

Lindsay was a professor of political science at the University of Northern Iowa and won the Pi Sigma Alpha  / American Political Science Association Award for Outstanding Teaching in 1999. The same year, he was appointed dean of the graduate school and director of the Institute for Philosophic Studies at the University of Dallas, and subsequently was promoted to provost. [2]

In 2005, Lindsay briefly became provost and executive vice president of Seton Hall University. [2]

Shimer College presidency

Thomas Lindsay became president of Shimer College, a great books college with an enrollment of approximately 150 students, in January 2009. [1] His [3] short tenure was attributable to his controversial tactics and questionable long-term plans for the school. [4] Controversy first broke out when Lindsay abruptly fired the Director of Admissions, subsequently replacing her with a candidate who had been twice rejected by the search committee. According to Shimer Professor Albert Fernandez, Lindsay's actions were undertaken unilaterally, "without any internal consultation whatsoever". [5] He soon acquired the title, "The Enemy of Democracy at Shimer College" [6] as reported in the Student Newspaper of the Illinois Institute of Technology (Shimer had relocated to the IIT Campus in 2006).

In January 2010, it was first made public that most of the trustees supporting Lindsay's actions also shared financial ties with Barre Seid. Seid, a conservative Chicago industrialist and noted supporter of right wing causes, had previously made major donations to Shimer, albeit anonymously. [4] [7] In February 2010, despite the unanimous objections of the faculty, [5] strong opposition from the community as a whole, [5] and protests by students, [7] [8] the Board of Trustees approved a wholesale rewrite by Lindsay of the school's mission statement. [9] The vote passed by a secret ballot vote of 18–16. [4] [5] In response, on April 14, the Shimer Assembly passed a vote of no confidence. [10]

Four days later, on April 18, 2010, the Shimer College Board of Trustees voted to remove Lindsay from his post as president. A majority voted to oust Lindsay, leaving a small contingent of Lindsay supporters on the board, all of whom subsequently resigned. [11] [12] The vote came shortly after unanimous votes of no confidence by the faculty, the Alumni Association, and the Assembly. [11]

Later academic career

In September 2011, Lindsay joined the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank based in Austin, Texas, where he serves as the Director of the Center for Higher Education.

Publications

Other published writings

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of Chicago</span> Private university in Chicago, Illinois

The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago. The university, established in 1890, has its main campus in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. Admissions at the University of Chicago are considered highly selective.

Shimer Great Books School is a Great Books college that is part of North Central College in Naperville, Illinois. Prior to 2017, Shimer was an independent, accredited college on the south side of Chicago, with a history of being in different cities in Illinois prior to that.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of Dallas</span> University in Irving, Texas

The University of Dallas is a private Catholic university in Irving, Texas. Established in 1956, it is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harold Washington College</span> Community college in Chicago, Illinois, United States

Harold Washington College is a community college, part of the City Colleges of Chicago system of the City of Chicago, in Illinois, United States. It is located in the downtown "Loop" area of the City, near the series of parks along the lakefront of Lake Michigan, centered at 30 East Lake Street. Founded in 1962 as Loop College, the college was renamed for the first African American to be elected Mayor of Chicago, Harold Washington, (1922–1987), after his sudden death in office in November 1987.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Keohane</span> American academic

Robert Owen Keohane is an American academic working within the fields of international relations and international political economy. Following the publication of his influential book After Hegemony (1984), he has become widely associated with the theory of neoliberal institutionalism in international relations, as well as transnational relations and world politics in international relations in the 1970s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harvey Mansfield</span> American political philosopher

Harvey Claflin Mansfield Jr. is an American political philosopher. He is the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Government at Harvard University, where he has taught since 1962. He has held Guggenheim and NEH Fellowships and has been a Fellow at the National Humanities Center; he also received the National Humanities Medal in 2004 and delivered the Jefferson Lecture in 2007. He is a Carol G. Simon Senior Fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. He is notable for his generally conservative stance on political issues in his writings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas More College of Liberal Arts</span> Liberal arts college in Merrimack, New Hampshire

The Thomas More College of Liberal Arts is a private Roman Catholic liberal arts college in Merrimack, New Hampshire. It emphasizes classical education in the Catholic intellectual tradition and is named after Saint Thomas More. It is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education. It is endorsed by The Newman Guide to Choosing a Catholic College.

John Agresto is an American author, lecturer, and university administrator.

William Craig Rice was an American educator. He was the Director of the Division of Education Programs of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen Balch</span> American academic (born 1944)

Stephen H. Balch is an American conservative scholar and higher education reformer. He was the founding president of the National Association of Scholars from 1987 to 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Student governments in the United States</span> American organizations representing high school or college students

Student governments in the United States exist in both secondary and higher education. At the collegiate level, the most common name is Student Government, according to the American Student Government Association's database of all student governments throughout the United States. The next most common name is the student government association. Other names are student senate, associated students, or less commonly students' union. There was one instance of a government of the student body, at Iowa State University. At Yale University, the undergraduate student government is known as the Yale College Council. High school student governments usually are known as Student Council.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Shimer College</span>

Shimer College was founded in 1852, when the pioneer town of Mt. Carroll, Illinois, lacking a public school, incorporated the Mt. Carroll Seminary with no land, no teachers, and no money for this purpose.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward Noonan (architect)</span> American architect and real estate developer

Edward Joseph Noonan is an architect and real estate developer based in Chicago, Illinois, and the former interim president of Shimer College. He is the chairman of the board of Chicago Associates Planners & Architects, and was the lead architect in the Tryon Farm development near Michigan City, Indiana.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Don Moon (educator)</span>

Don P. Moon is an American academic administrator, minister, and former nuclear reactor physicist. He was the president of Shimer College from 1978 to 2004, and has been on the faculty of Shimer College since 1967.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Francis Joseph Mullin</span>

Francis Joseph Mullin, also often known as F.J. Mullin or Joe Mullin, was an American academic and the seventh president of Shimer College. He was raised Catholic, but became an Episcopalian as a teenager. He was key in engineering Shimer's brief period as an Episcopal-affiliated college; the school had previously had a Baptist affiliation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Floyd Wilcox</span>

Floyd Cleveland Wilcox was the third president of Shimer College, serving from 1930 to 1935. His leadership, though marked by controversy, saw the school through the most difficult years of the Great Depression. He oversaw the transition of the school's curriculum from a two-year to a four-year junior college program.

The Mount Carroll Seminary was the name of Shimer College from 1853 to 1896. The Seminary was located in Mount Carroll, Illinois, in the United States. A pioneering institution in its time and place, the Mount Carroll Seminary served as a center of culture and education in 19th-century northwestern Illinois. Despite frequent prognostications of failure, it grew from 11 students in a single room to more than 100 students on a spacious campus with four principal buildings. Unusually for the time, the school was governed entirely by women, most notably the founder Frances Wood Shimer, who was the chief administrator throughout the Seminary's entire existence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Susan Henking</span> American college president

Susan E. Henking is an American religious studies scholar. She was the 14th and final president of Shimer College in Chicago, appointed in July 2012 and finishing in 2017. She then served in interim roles at Salem Academy and College, including Interim President in 2020/2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">José Aybar</span>

José M. Aybar, full name José Manuel Aybar de Soto, is the former president of Richard J. Daley College in Chicago, one of the City Colleges of Chicago. He has attracted nationwide attention for his innovative approach to remedial instruction at the college level, which has led to a doubling of pass rates for students in remedial courses at Daley College.

Barre Seid is an American businessman and political donor from Chicago. He was the owner of Tripp Lite, an electrical products manufacturer. Seid donated the company to Marble Freedom Trust, which in 2021 sold Tripp Lite to American-Irish power company Eaton for US$1.65 billion. Seid has made large contributions to conservative causes.

References

  1. 1 2 "Inauguration of 13th President of Shimer College". Archived from the original on July 13, 2011. Retrieved April 10, 2009.
  2. 1 2 "SHU enters new academic year with changes in two key administrative posts". The Catholic Advocate. August 25, 2004. Archived from the original on July 18, 2011.
  3. "The Daily Censored » Little College wins big Victory against Right Wing takeover". dailycensored.com.
  4. 1 2 3 Don Troop (February 25, 2010). "At a Tiny College, an Epic Battle Over Academic Authority". Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved April 10, 2010.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Sam Feldman (March 3, 2010). "Big Trouble at Little Shimer". Chicago Weekly. Archived from the original on September 24, 2010. Retrieved April 10, 2010.
  6. "File:Is Democracy Important at Shimer College.PDF - Wikimedia Commons" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on February 25, 2014. Retrieved February 12, 2014.
  7. 1 2 Deanna Isaacs (February 25, 2010). "Who's Buying Shimer?". Chicago Reader. Retrieved April 10, 2010.
  8. Linda Goldstein (February 22, 2010). "Shimer students protest outside their Board of Trustees meeting". Tech News. Retrieved April 10, 2010.
  9. Shimer College. "Shimer College Board Announces New Mission Statement Emphasizing Required Study of U.S. Constitution" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on June 10, 2011. Retrieved April 10, 2010.
  10. Jonathan (April 14, 2010). "Shimer Student Alliance". shimerstudentalliance.blogspot.com.
  11. 1 2 Ron Grossman (April 19, 2010). "Shimer College president fired". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on January 2, 2013. Retrieved April 19, 2010.
  12. Jack Stripling (April 21, 2010). "Old School Shimer". Inside Higher Ed.