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Steven Hayward has been appointed the first Visiting Scholar in Conservative Thought and Policy, the University of ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder announced last month.

The appointment is the culmination of extensive discussion and the subject of public debate. Now that the appointment has been made, the pitch of the discussion seems to have dropped a few notes, if not a full octave.

Hayward, Thomas W. Smith Distinguished Fellow at the Ashbrook Center at Ashland University, will begin his one-year appointment beginning in fall 2013.

“Dr. Hayward brings an impressive breadth of knowledge to this position, having researched a range of environmental, historical and political issues,” said Steven R. Leigh, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ-Boulder.

Hayward’s recent investigations of environmental issues “bring important dimensions to discussions on campus.” Leigh said. “He also shows dedication to our teaching mission, planning a well-defined range of courses. We are pleased that he will join us as a visiting scholar.”

Hayward is scheduled to teach four undergraduate courses, three in political science—Constitutional Law 1 plus a course in “Special Topics: Varieties of Conservative Experience”—and one in environmental studies, “Free-Market Environmentalism.”

Hayward will teach in both fall and spring semesters. Additionally, he will be encouraged to foster discussion by hosting public events in the campus community and perhaps around the state.

“This is a bold experiment for the university and me to see whether the ideological spectrum can be broadened in a serious and constructive way,” Hayward said.

Hayward added that the college classroom should not be a forum for ideological advocacy:

“Good teaching should make all students, of whatever disposition, better thinkers. In the humanities, this should be done by considering fairly the full range of perspectives on a subject. That’s the way I intend to conduct classes while I am visiting at the university, and I hope that students of every kind of opinion will feel welcome in my classroom.”

Back in 2008, as ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ-Boulder launched its drive for the new position, The Wall Street Journal’s perspective seemed to appear in its headline: “Help wanted: Lefty college seeks right-wing prof.”

University officials quickly noted that they sought a scholar of conservative thought—someone immersed in the study of, say, the philosophers Edmund Burke and David Hume—not a polemicist or a conservative activist.

But some commentators on the right remained skeptical. David Horowitz, a “conservative agitator” quoted by the Journal, said the position amounted to a “token right-winger” akin to “an animal at the zoo.”

As the columnist George F. Will told the Journal: “Like Margaret Mead among the Samoans, they’re planning to study conservatives. That’s hilarious.”

In a subsequent phone call with then-Chancellor Bud Peterson, Will reportedly endorsed the idea.

Meanwhile in 2008, New York Times Columnist Stanley Fish argued that “conservative thought, like any other form of thought, is a perfectly appropriate candidate for academic interrogation.” One important story of the last half-century, Fish noted, is the rise of conservatism that followed the 1964 trouncing of Barry Goldwater.

Such trends, Fish said, “could be explored at length in a perfectly respectable college course, and again, the political affiliation of the instructor would be irrelevant.” Fish offered to apply for the job.

By 2013, when Hayward was appointed, the tone of the commentary had shifted. Paul Harvey, professor of history at ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ’s ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Springs campus, made this observation on his blog:

“The history of conservatism in America has been one of the ‘hottest’ topics in my field of American history over the last 20 years or more. Somehow, that development has evaded media coverage, and I have yet to see any of those scholars trumpeted on the right-leaning shows and networks. Perhaps our newly endowed Professor Hayward will invite some of them to campus, where they might have a discussion of what (if anything) contemporary conservatives take from their own intellectual antecedents.”

Jon Caldara, president of the free-market Independence Institute (and a ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ-Boulder alumnus), told the Washington Times that Hayward was a “superb choice.” Caldara also said Hayward would be an “anomaly, but since there’s only one of him at a campus of 30,000, that’s a ratio ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ can handle.”

Hayward holds a Ph.D. in American Studies from Claremont Graduate School. He has been the F.K. Weyerhaeuser Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he was principal author and project director of the AEI’s “Energy and Environment Outlook.”

Hayward has been a visiting lecturer in the Government Department of Georgetown University and is a senior fellow at the Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy. He has also served as a Bradley Fellow at The Heritage Foundation.

Hayward’s essays have been published in The Washington Post, National Review, Weekly Standard and other publications. His most recent book, published in 2010, is “Mere Environmentalism: A Biblical Perspective on Humans and the Natural World.”

Since last summer, an advisory committee has been working to identify candidates for the visiting-scholar position. The committee has sought a “highly visible” scholar who is “deeply engaged in either the analytical scholarship or practice of conservative thinking and policymaking or both.”

The advisory committee that selected Hayward includes five faculty members and five community members. Keith Maskus, associate dean of social sciences and professor of economics, chaired the committee but did not vote.

Maskus said committee members worked together extremely well and were committed to the goal of bringing an exceptional scholar to campus.

Non-university committee members include: David Pyle, founder and CEO of American Career College; Mike Rosen, long-time radio host on AM 850 KOA and Denver Post columnist and political commentator; Bob Greenlee, former Boulder City Council member and mayor and current president of Centennial Investment & Management Company Inc.; ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ President Emeritus Hank Brown; and Earl Wright, CEO of AMG National Trust Bank.

ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ faculty members on the committee include: Vanessa Baird, associate professor of political science; David S. Brown, professor and chair of political science; Bradley Monton, associate professor of philosophy; Murat Iyigun, professor of economics; and Susan K. Kent, professor and chair of history.

Rosen, the radio host and search-committee member, made these concluding comments in a recent Denver Post column:

“Leftist faculty and students at ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ who are proud of and confident in their convictions shouldn’t be afraid of competition in the war of ideas. I hope they’re sufficiently open minded, tolerant and mannerly to welcome Hayward warmly and treat him respectfully. Some might even find his ideas new (to them) and inviting. Perish the thought.”

The Visiting Scholar in Conservative Thought and Policy is a three-year pilot program supported by private funds. More than 20 donors have raised $1 million to support the program.