LBJ CONFERENCE

“The only sure bulwark of continuing liberty is a government strong enough to protect the interests of the people, and a people strong enough and well enough informed to maintain its sovereign control over the government.”

~Franklin Delano Roosevelt

The Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College is proud to present The Road to November: Exploring America’s Challenges on the way to Election 2012, a programming series dedicated to exploring and engaging the nation’s challenges preceding the November 2012 Presidential election.

Inaugurated by the March 14-15 LBJ Presidential Symposium, The Road to November will feature panel discussions, lectures, book discussions, debate watch parties etc. -- that will culminate, fittingly, on election night, November 7, 2012, nearly 80 years to the day from FDR’s first electoral victory, which he celebrated at Roosevelt House. 

Distinguished guests and faculty members will present a diverse array of topics in which they will offer insight and historical perspective to issues of today, as well as invite debate by engaging the student body and the broader community in the democratic process. We look forward to seeing you at an event in the near future.

Past Events:

A Conversation with Jon Huntsman Jr. - April 23, 2012

REVISITING THE GREAT SOCIETY

THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT FROM FDR AND LBJ TO TODAY

President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Governor James Allred, Congressman Lyndon B. Johnson *LBJ Library Photo by Jack Miller

Presidential Leadership Symposium

New York City

14-15 March 2012

Revisiting the Great Society: The Role of Government from FDR and LBJ to Today is a two-day symposium that will offer an in-depth examination of the domestic side of the Johnson presidency. Featuring a distinguished roster of scholars and policymakers alike, the symposium will locate the LBJ presidency in historical perspective, drawing on lessons from FDR's New Deal, and will provide an ideal forum to discuss implications for our current leadership.

For more information, please call 212-650-3174.

DRAFT SCHEDULE

(subject to change)

DAY 1 – 14 March 2012

Kaye Playhouse, Hunter College, East 68th Street between Park and Lexington Avenues

5:00pm-6:00pm:

Welcoming Remarks:  Jennifer J. Raab, President, Hunter College

Introductory Remarks:  Mark K. Updegrove, Director, Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library and Museum

Keynote Address: Robert A. Caro, Author of The Years of Lyndon Johnson

6:00pm-7:15pm 

Opening Session – Presidential Leadership:  Making Washington Work

Moderator:  Bob Schieffer, CBS News Chief Washington Correspondent and Moderator of Face the Nation

Panelists:

• Joseph A. Califano, Jr., LBJ’s Chief Domestic Advisor; former US Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare (1977-1979)
• Ervin Duggan, former President of PBS
• George McGovern, former Democratic Presidential Candidate, US Senator, and US Ambassador to UN Mission in Rome
• Walter F. Mondale, 42nd Vice President of the United States and former US Senator
• Bill Moyers, LBJ’s Press Secretary and Host of Bill Moyers Journal

DAY 2 – 15 March 2012

All Day 2 events will take place at the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute, located at 47-49 East 65th Street (between Madison and Park Avenues).

8:30am-9am

Continental Breakfast & Conference Registration

9am-9:55am

Setting the Stage

Jonathan Fanton, FDR Fellow, Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute

Keynote Address – Presidential Leadership: Challenges and Responsibilities

Michael Beschloss, Presidential Historian

9:55am-11:10am

Session 1 – Civil Rights 

Moderator:  Jonathan Rosenberg, Professor of History, Hunter College

Panelists:

• Taylor Branch, Author of the historical trilogy, America in the King Years
• Nick Kotz, Author of Judgment Days: Lyndon Baines Johnson, Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Laws that Changed America
• The Honorable John Lewis, United States House of Representatives; former Chairman, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (1963-1966)

11:10am-11:15am

Short Break 

11:15am-12:30pm

Session 2 – Health Care

Moderator:  Drew E. Altman, Ph.D., President and CEO, The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation

Panelists:

• Joseph A. Califano, Jr., LBJ’s Chief Domestic Advisor; former US Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare (1977-1979)
• Theodore R. Marmor, Professor Emeritus of Political Science and Public Policy & Management, Yale University 
• Louis W. Sullivan, former US Secretary of Health and Human Services (1989-1993); President Emeritus, Morehouse School of Medicine
• Steffie Woolhandler, Professor of Public Health, CUNY School of Public Health, Hunter College

12:30pm-1:30pm

Buffet Lunch 

1:30pm-2:15pm

Speaker:  Randall B. Woods, John A. Cooper Professor of History, University of Arkansas; Author of LBJ: Architect of American Ambition

2:15pm-3:30pm

Session 3 – Education

Moderator:  Joseph P. Viteritti, Thomas Hunter Professor of Public Policy, Hunter College

Panelists:  

• Patricia Albjerg Graham, Charles Warren Professor of the History of American Education Emerita, Harvard University
• James P. Comer, M.D., Maurice Falk Professor of Child Psychiatry, Yale Child Study Center; Founder, School of Development Program
• David Steiner, Dean, School of Education, Hunter College; former NY State Commissioner of Education

3:30pm-3:45pm

Coffee and Tea Break

3:45pm-5:15pm

Session 4 – Poverty and Economic Opportunity, Then and Now

Moderator:  Cordelia W. Reimers, Professor Emeritus of Economics, Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York

Panelists:  

• The Honorable Rafael Anchia, Texas House of Representatives
• Richard B. Freeman, Herbert S. Ascherman Professor of Economics, Harvard University
• Robert H. Haveman, Professor Emeritus of Public Affairs and Economics and Research Associate at the Institute for Research on Poverty, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Frances Fox Piven, Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Sociology, CUNY Graduate Center

Synthesis of Proceedings 

Speaker: Ira Katznelson, Ruggles Professor of Political Science and History, Columbia University 

Personal Reflection and Parting Words

Speaker:  Joseph A. Califano, Jr., LBJ’s Chief Domestic Advisor; former US Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare (1977-1979)

5:15pm-7pm

Cocktail Reception

Joan H. Tisch Community Health Prize

The Joan H. Tisch Community Health Prize is a $10,000 award to be presented each year to an individual and a nonprofit organization in the New York metropolitan area for outstanding accomplishment in the field of urban public health.

The Union Settlement Association and Dr. Melony Samuels of Bed-Stuy Campaign Against Hunger were the recipients of the inaugural Joan H. Tisch Community Health Prize. For more information, please click here. 

Announcement:  The Hunter College Foundation is seeking nominations for the second annual Joan H. Tisch Community Health Prize. This award was created to recognize one individual and one nonprofit organization in the New York metropolitan area for outstanding accomplishment in the field of urban public health. The nominee’s work should be focused on improving urban public health in areas such as: reducing health disparities; obesity/diabetes/nutrition; chronic disease prevention and management; environmental health; HIV/AIDS; health problems associated with poverty; healthy aging; mental health; substance abuse and addiction; public health policy and advocacy; and access, financing, and quality of care.  For more information, please click here. 

The Joan H. Tisch Public Health Forum

Joan H. Tisch Public Health Forum, an annual symposium at Roosevelt House focusing on national and New York City public health issues, including HIV/AIDS, obesity, diabetes, environmental health, health problems associated with poverty and aging, public mental health and national health reform.

Past Forums supported by the Joan H. Tisch Legacy Project include:

Joan H. Tisch Public Health Forum with Peter Orszag (December 8, 2010)
Joan H. Tisch Public Health Forum: FDR's Legacy and Health Care Reform (April 6, 2010)