It is my pleasure to announce that I have joined Intellectual Takeout as vice president of research and education. IT, a Minnesota-based nonprofit, provides academic resources for libertarian and conservative-minded students and lay persons.

College students’ political beliefs tend to move toward the left throughout their undergraduate education. Results from the 2008 College Senior Survey (PDF) administered by the Higher Education Research Institute show that “[b]ased on the longitudinal figures, fewer students would characterize themselves as conservative compared to when they entered college as freshmen. In contrast, an increased percentage of students consider themselves liberals by the end of their college careers” (p. 31). Moreover, a 2004 HERI research report (PDF) surveying the political attitudes of recent college graduates found that this group supported increased government control over “the sale of handguns (83%) and environmental pollution (75%)”, a national health care plan (64%), levying higher taxes on the rich (59%), and raising taxes to reduce the federal deficit (29%) (p. 4).

What explains these findings? One reason is that college students are exposed to an overwhelming majority of liberal college faculty. In a study by Tobin and Weinberg (2006) 60 percent of social science and humanities faculty defined themselves as liberal, and only 12 percent as conservative. Even though business faculty were found to be the most conservative and politically diverse, only 30 percent of them called themselves conservatives (pp. ii-iii). Tobin and Weinberg also identified the following beliefs as pervasive among the college faculty they surveyed (pp. i-ii):

Propensity to blame America for world problems.

A tendency to strongly support international institutions such as the United Nations.

Strong opposition to American unilateralism.

Criticism of big business.

Skepticism about capitalism’s ability to help address poverty in developing nations.

The liberal dominance on American college campuses is often accompanied by hostility toward and censorship of conservative and libertarian ideas. Books such Indoctrination U and The Shadow University and the film Indoctrinate U provide grim accounts of this fact. Students and faculty dissenting from the dominant views held on campus also censor themselves for fear of suffering negative consequences (Tobin & Weinberg, p. iii).

At IT we work toward a better hour. We seek to empower students to counter the effects of liberal indoctrination by providing them with the intellectual resources to defend the foundations of a free society – a society based on the principles of limited government, free enterprise, and personal responsibility.

I hope you will assist us in our efforts.

The Culture of Reason Center is offering lectures 1-20 of Nathaniel Branden’s The Basic Principles of Objectivism Course for sale as individual MP3 downloads. These are the original lectures that Branden gave during the operation of the Nathaniel Branden Institute in the 60’s. Enjoy!

Lecture 01: The Role of Philosophy
Lecture 02: What is Reason?
Lecture 03: Logic and Mysticism
Lecture 04: The Concept of God
Lecture 05: Free Will
Lecture 06: Efficient Thinking
Lecture 07: Self-Esteem
Lecture 08: The Psychology of Dependence
Lecture 09: The Psychology of Sex
Lecture 10: The Objectivist Ethics
Lecture 11: Reason and Virtue
Lecture 12: Justice vs. Mercy
Lecture 13: The Evil of Self-Sacrifice
Lecture 14: Government and The Individual
Lecture 15: The Economics of A Free Society
Lecture 16: Common Fallacies About Capitalism
Lecture 17: Romanticism, Naturalism and The Novels of Ayn Rand, Part 1
Lecture 18: Romanticism, Naturalism and The Novels of Ayn Rand, Part 2
Lecture 19: The Nature of Evil
Lecture 20: The Benevolent Sense of Life

I recently had the opportunity to interview the Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship’s Fall 2009 guest speaker Joshua Hall about his views on school finance reform. Professor Hall explains why, despite an increase in spending on public education, we are not getting more out of it. Via CEE.

Meetings take up a lot of the typical manager’s time. “The average number of meetings more than doubled in the second half of the 20th Century and time spent in them just keeps growing” (Management-Issues.com, 2007). Not only that, meetings often waste resources, as employees could be using the time they spend in meetings toward more productive ends: “Unnecessary or unproductive meetings have been calculated to cost managers 10 per cent of their time – 24 work days a year, while a study by Microsoft in 2004 suggested that unnecessary meetings are the number one drain on the productivity of small businesses” (Management-Issues.com, 2007). All the more reason to implement some strategies to keep meetings as short and as productive as possible with these few tips.

1. Avoid meetings if possible. Ask yourself: Is a meeting the best way to accomplish your goal(s)? If you need to disseminate information or make announcements, could you do it in a memo? If you need other people’s input, would an email brainstorming discussion or a quick stop at their desk also work? Keeping the number of meetings to a minimum will make the meetings you do hold more valuable. Less is more.
2. Rethink your use of meetings. What is best use of your meeting time? You don’t need to have a meeting for status reports, presentations and announcements; people can read those in emails, memos and newsletters. You need a meeting to engage with people. So, send your monthly sales report, the new product marketing presentation, or process improvement plan to attendants beforehand; use the meeting for feedback, Q&A or to hatch new ideas.
3. Set a time limit. Set the duration of your meeting to 50 minutes. The prospect of a short meeting will decrease attendants’ resistance toward the meeting and more willing to participate, which in turn will lead to things getting done faster. Schedule a break at the 25-minute mark to let people recharge. If your meetings normally last longer than 50 minutes, it might seem challenging to cut down on the time, but keep trying.
4. Pick a meeting leader. Assign one person the responsibility to run the meeting. Preferably, this should be someone who is not afraid to keep people on track and cut off ramblers.
5. Use a timer. To keep people on topic and on track, use a visible timer, such as an alarm clock, an hour glass or a timer on your computer projected onto a screen for all to see.
6. Have an agenda. Set a deadline for people to get their items on the agenda. Organize it in terms of priority with the most important items first. Distribute the agenda prior to the meeting.
7. Be prepared. Prime the pump by giving your attendees relevant reading materials, such as reports, data, charts, meeting notes and even a list of key discussion points, before the meeting.
8. Turn off distractions. To keep people focused on the meeting, ask them to either turn off their cell phones, Blackberries, laptops and other electronic devices, better yet, leave them at their desks.
9. Take minutes. Minutes serve as a record and a reference for what decisions were made and what actions were assigned to whom. They also help you avoid having to rehash things that you’ve already gone over at a previous meeting. Make sure to distribute the minutes to all attendants as well as people who should know what went on.

Today, I celebrate my birthday. Well, not really. I should call it my re-birthday. You see, I grew up in East Berlin, and today twenty years have passed since the Fall of the Berlin Wall.

I was 8 years old, living in Moscow on that day. Little did I know that it would not only change the course of history, but my life as well.

Back then I did not understand the significance of what had happened. However, when I returned to Berlin during the summer of 1990, I could already feel that some profound change had taken place, and that more was to come. Still, I had yet to grasp how philosophy shapes man and his creations. I had yet to gain the knowledge necessary to perceive how the human spirit is uplifted by freedom and crushed by coercion.

But today, I understand that the fall of the Berlin Wall opened much more for me than a physical border.

Had it not been for that day, I would probably not be living in the United States now. Those who wanted to cross the East German border, attempting to exercise one of their most fundamental individual rights — the freedom to seek greater economic liberty and personal opportunity — were shot by the border guards.

Had it not been for that day, I would probably not have obtained a degree in philosophy, or have been exposed to the great minds of classical liberal and libertarian thoughts — John Locke, Adam Smith, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Friedrich Hayek, Ayn Rand, and Milton Friedman. Higher education was rationed, controlled and censored; individualists were spied on, harassed, blackmailed and imprisoned in East Germany.

Most importantly, had it not been for that day, I would not have met my husband, a man as passionate about choosing his life as I am about choosing mine.

Yet, I do not regard this day as a reminder not to take for granted the freedom I now enjoy. It is simply the day that I and millions of other people regained the ability to exercise the rights we naturally possess.

What matters are not the walls that we erect, but the ones that we tear down.

The American Chronic Pain Association reports that somewhere between 2 and 40 percent of adults suffer from chronic pain. According to a study by the National Institute of Health, “low back pain [is] the most common (27%), followed by severe headache or migraine pain (15%), neck pain (15%) and facial ache or pain (4%)” (American Academy of Pain Medicine). I have chronic pelvic pain, which “is one of the most common medical problems of women” (International Pelvic Pain Society).

Chronic pain negatively affects a person’s physical and psychological well-being. The National Center for Health reported in 2006 that of the patients they surveyed 51% felt they had little or no control over their pain, 59% said it affected their overall enjoyment of life, and 77% reported being depressed as a result of their pain (American Academy of Pain Medicine).

But you can lessen the negative consequences of suffering from chronic pain. Here are some ways I have learned to cope:

1. Acknowledge and accept your pain. This might sound simplistic, but many people have a hard time accepting that they are ill or in pain because they think it makes them look weak. Yet, you cannot begin to alleviate your pain if you refuse to accept its reality.
2. Do your own research. Don’t just accept what your doctors are telling you. Depending on the nature of your pain, they might have to sort through a host of possibilities with respect to what condition(s) could be causing your pain. So, educating yourself can be of tremendous help in the diagnostic process. Your doctors also might not be up to date on the latest research; they are busy too. Further, especially when conventional therapy methods are limited, it is important to know what alternatives are available.
3. Consider diet modification. Chronic pain can sometimes be either caused or exacerbated by allergies and intolerances to certain foods. Research whether certain foods have been shown to worsen the pain associated with your condition. If so, try an elimination diet to see if it will reduce your pain.
4. Be optimistic. Think that you will get better, say it out loud and mean it. Science has already uncovered links between optimism and disease resilience.
5. Focus on your life goals. You might think that being in pain puts you in the worst condition to pursue your personal and professional aims. Yet, shifting your focus to what you really want to accomplish in life prevents you from defining yourself by your pain, giving you meaning and purpose beyond.
6. Learn to relax. Everyday life can be stressful, but pain can make it exponentially so. Evidence suggests that various relaxation techniques such as guided imagery, deep breathing, or listening to music may lower pain.
7. Exercise. Depending on your condition and the recommendations of your doctors, seek out the best form of exercise for you. Exercise releases endorphins which naturally help to reduce pain and stress. For a gentle workout, try stretching, yoga, or pilates. Walking and swimming are easy on the joints. To build muscle, I suggest resistance bands or light weights. Whatever form of exercise you choose, do what makes you feel good and keep at it consistently.
8. Talk to your family and friends. They probably feel just as frustrated and helpless as you seeing a loved one suffer and not knowing what to do about it. So, help them understand how you feel physically and emotionally, and how the chronic pain is affecting you. Moreover, let them know how they can help, even if it is just by leaving you to rest or brewing up your favorite tea.
9. Reach out to other chronic pain sufferers. You are not alone with your pain. Join relevant support groups and disease-related associations to share your experiences and learn from others what has helped them.

For more on dealing with chronic pain, check out these resources:

American Chronic Pain Association
American Pain Society
American Pain Foundation
American Academy of Pain Medicine