Year: 2023

The American Academy for Liberal Education (AALE) held annual elections on June 13, 2023. Board of Trustee member Gary Kelly, a consultant and attorney in New York was reelected for a second four-year term and Robert Manzer was re-appointed as president. A new Council of Scholars member Rudy Hernandez was elected.
Rudy Hernandez is the Director of Undergraduate Studies-Truman School of Government and Public Affairs and Assistant Teaching Professor of Political Science at Missouri University, Columbia (MO). His research focuses on political theory and American political development. Recently his work has appeared in The Political Science Reviewer. He has prior government experience, including having been in AmeriCorps, having worked as a tax examiner in the U.S. Treasury Department, and eight years in the U.S. Army Reserve.  Rudy received his Ph.D. and M.A. from Louisiana State University and his B.A. from St. John’s College-Annapolis (MD).

AALE’s president, Dr. Robert Manzer is the author of a recent report “The American University’s Path to Illiberalism”, published by the American Enterprise Institute. The report examines the slide of American universities into illiberalism – a slide, which according to Manzer did not happen overnight. The report presents the view that “the current campus phenomena we are witnessing are partly a result of a decades-long assault on the faculty’s role and standing on campus. The full report is available at The American University’s Path to Illiberalism | American Enterprise Institute – AEI