Stephen Balch

Stephen Balch receiving National Humanities Medal from President George W. Bush

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.[1][2][3]

Biography

Early life

Stephen Balch was born on January 31, 1944 into a Jewish family and grew up in Brooklyn, New York City.[4][2] In 1979 he married Maria Schelz, and they have two children: Leah and Daniel.

Education

Dr. Balch received a bachelor's degree, magna cum laude, from Brooklyn College, City University of New York, in 1964. He received his master's degree (1967) and Ph.D. (1972) in political science from the University of California in Berkeley, where his dissertation supervisor was Nelson W. Polsby.[1][2][5] It was during the Berkeley riots that he became a conservative.[5] He now identifies as a Republican.[6]

Career

In his early career, Stephen Balch held numerous faculty positions. He was Instructor of Government at the University of San Francisco (1969-1970), Acting Instructor of Political Science at the University of California in Berkeley (1970-1971), Instructor of Political Science at Rutgers University in New Brunswick (1971-1972), Assistant Professor of Urban Policy and Programs at the Office of Urban Policy and Programs in the City University of New York’s Graduate Center (1973-1974), Assistant Professor and later Associate Professor of Government at John Jay College of Criminal Justice of the City University of New York for fourteen years,[1][2][5] during which he joined Midge Decter’s Committee for the Free World and founded the Campus Coalition for Democracy [5] in 1982. In 1987, Dr. Balch left his academic position and founded the National Association of Scholars (NAS), a membership organization of academic professionals opposed to political correctness in higher education [2]. He served as president of the NAS for twenty-one years between 1987-2008, was founder and Vice President of the American Academy for Liberal Education (an accrediting agency devoted to enriching content and enhancing the rigor of liberal education [5]), was founder and Director of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni [3] (1994-2011), served on the Board of Trustees for Medaille College in Buffalo, New York (1997-2003), was Director of the Philadelphia Society [7] (2002-2006), Chairman of the National Association of Scholars from 2009-2012, and is currently a member of its Steering Committee and Board (2012-present). (The NAS now has about 3,000 academic members and forty-seven state affiliates.) Since 2010, Stephen Balch has been a board member of the Alexander Hamilton Institute for the Study of Western Civilization. In the fall of 2012, Dr. Balch founded the Institute for the Study of Western Civilization at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas.[8][9] He is Chairman of the Association for the Study of Free Institutions [1] (2014-present), Member of the Board of the Alliance for Liberal Learning (2015-present), President of the West Texas/Eastern New Mexico Phi Beta Kappa Association (2016-present), President of Lambda of Texas, Texas Tech University’s Phi Beta Kappa Chapter, and Member of the Board of the American Academy for Liberal Education (2016-present).

As the chief executive officer of the National Association of Scholars (NAS), Dr. Balch has received extensive coverage in the national and educational media. He has played a key role in the founding of numerous academic programs at American universities and colleges focused on the study of free institutions and Western civilization.

He is also co-author of several major NAS studies of curriculum evolution and problems, including The Dissolution of General Education: 1914-1993 and Losing the Big Picture: The Fragmentation of the English Major Since 1964. In addition, Dr. Balch serves as Editor-in-Chief of the NAS journal, Academic Questions [5].  

Public service

Phi Beta Kappa 1964

American Political Science Association Congressional Fellow, 1972-1973

Danforth Foundation Associate, 1980-1984

Stephen Balch received the National Humanities Medal [1][10] for distinguished service on behalf of the humanities, which was bestowed by President George W. Bush at the White House on November 15, 2007. This award cited him “for leadership and advocacy upholding the noblest traditions in higher education,” and went on to say that “his work on behalf of reasoned scholarship in a free society has made him a leading champion of excellence and reform at our nation’s universities.” [11] On February 27, 2009, Dr. Balch also received the Jeane Jordan Kirkpatrick Academic Freedom Award presented by the American Conservative Union Foundation and the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation.[1]

Dr. Balch served as chairman of the New Jersey State Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights from 1985 to 1990, and was a member of the Committee from 1990 to 2005 [2]. He was also a member of the National Advisory Board of the United States Department of Education’s Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education from 2001 to 2004 [2].

Bibliography

Books

Book chapters

Articles

Among his earlier publications on the subject was:

Political Science Journal Articles       

Plus book reviews and other opinion pieces on higher education issues in Society, Commentary, and The Wall Street Journal, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Philanthropy Magazine, The Washington Times and The New York Post, the National Association of Scholars website, and PJ Media. [3][12][13]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 The National Association of Scholars: People
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 National Endowment for the Humanities bio of Balch
  3. 1 2 3 The Society for Academic Freedom and Society biography
  4. ↑ Swain, Carol (2003). Contemporary voices of white nationalism in America. Cambridge, UK New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 81. ISBN 978-0521016933. Note: this quote is from the authors' introductory essay, not from the interviews.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Peter Wood, A Tribute to Stephen H. Balch, NAS Article, Jan 12, 2009
  6. ↑ John Tierney, Republicans Outnumbered in Academia, Studies Find, The New York Times, November 18, 2004
  7. ↑ The Philadelphia Society Board of Trustees
  8. ↑ Peter Monaghan, Advocate of Western Civilization Finds a Home for His Ideas at Texas Tech's Honors College, The Chronicle of Higher Education, October 12, 2012
  9. ↑ NAS Founder Stephen H. Balch Takes New Role in Western Civilization Institute, NAS, Oct 11, 2012
  10. ↑ Jason M. Breslow, 6 Academics Receive National Honors in Arts and Humanities, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Nov. 16, 2007
  11. ↑ "Humanities Medals Awarded by President Bush. Recipients honored for outstanding cultural contributions" NEH News Archive
  12. ↑ PJ Media webpage
  13. ↑ The National Review
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.