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“Today, more than 50 percent of humanity lives in cities,” said Edward Glaeser, professor of economics in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University.  And while Mohandas Gandhi once intimated that the strength of a country “lives in its villages,” Glaeser explained that he respectfully disagreed, and that “there is no future in rural poverty.”  Rather, it is the city, an urban development defined largely by “high proximity, closeness and density of people,” which enables the “creation of the chains of collaborative brilliance that drive success.”

In his Levitt Speaker Series lecture on April 5, Peter Demerath, a University of Minnesota professor of organizational leadership, policy and development, discussed educational inequality and the reproduction of class status. Demerath drew on four years of personal research experience at a public high school in a suburb of Columbus, Ohio.

Austin Walker ’12 was selected to attend the Clinton Global Initiative University conference, March 30 – April 1 at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

Participants in the first Levitt Leadership Institute cohort headed to Washington, D.C. for the  second phase of the program during spring break. Led by Prudence Bushnell, former U.S. Ambassador to Kenya and Guatemala, the group continued their focus on the study of leadership, a program that was enhanced by daily meetings with Washington leaders. Funding for the entire program was provided by Arthur Levitt Jr.

Since gaining nationhood in the 18th century, the United States has been directly involved in dozens of armed military conflicts. The standard that the government has used and still uses to justify military engagements is the just war theory, which posits that a nation can, morally, only become involved in a military conflict that adheres to a set of ethical criteria. Andrew Fiala, professor of philosophy and director of the Ethics Center at California State University, Fresno, discussed the theory on March 1.

Eighteen students returned a week early to campus over winter break to take part in week one of a two-week pilot leadership program through the Arthur Levitt Public Affairs Center.  The program, called the Levitt Leadership Institute (LLI), was designed and led by Ambassador Prudence Bushnell with the assistance of Christine Powers and was intended to provide strong leadership training for students interested in working in public service. This program was made possible by a very generous gift from Arthur Levitt Jr.

American young people say that the top two causes of poverty are a lack of jobs (83.7 percent) followed by a lack of health insurance (64.3 percent) according to a new national survey of young Americans’ attitudes on poverty, released on Dec. 12 and conducted by Hamilton. More than two thirds (67.7 percent) also cited the growing incomes of the wealthiest people as negatively affecting the quality of life of those with lower incomes. The full results of this survey are available online and were presented by webcast at www.hamilton.edu/poverty.

American young people say that the top two causes of poverty are a lack of jobs (82.8 percent) followed by a lack of health insurance (69.4 percent) according to a new national survey of young Americans’ attitudes on poverty, conducted by Hamilton. The full results of this survey will be available online and presented by webcast on Monday, Dec. 12, at 11 a.m. EST at www.hamilton.edu/poverty. Questions during the presentation can be posed via Twitter using #povertypoll.

“With the backdrop of the Occupy Wall Street Protests, it’s not as hard to draw people into a discussion of inequality,” said Jacob Hacker in his lecture on Nov. 14.  Hacker, the Stanley B. Resor Professor of Political Science at Yale University and director of the Institution for Social and Policy Studies, gave a lecture for the Levitt Center’s Inequality and Equity Series.

Jacob Hacker, the Stanley B. Resor Professor of Political Science at Yale University, will present a lecture titled “Winner Take All Politics” on Monday, Nov. 14, at 4:15 p.m., in the Chapel. The lecture, which is part of the Levitt Center’s Inequality and Equity series, is free and open to the public.