The Center for Revitalizing American Institutions (RAI) hosts Campus & Country: Trust, Democracy, and Higher Education with Brandice Canes-Wrone, Larry Diamond, Paul Brest, and Brian Coyne on November 4, 2025, from 11:00a.m.-12:00 p.m. PT.
Higher education plays a vital role in sustaining a healthy democratic culture. Yet, over the past decade, public confidence in colleges and universities has declined sharply. At the same time, many institutions have retreated from their role in cultivating democratic citizens, placing greater emphasis on career preparation. What explains this erosion of trust? And how can higher education reclaim its civic mission? This panel will explore the causes of declining public confidence, the consequences for democracy, and potential pathways for renewing higher education’s civic purpose.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Brandice Canes-Wrone is the Maurice R. Greenberg Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, professor of political science at Stanford University, and the founding director of the Hoover Institution Center for Revitalizing American Institutions. She is also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Academy of Sciences and Letters.
Larry Diamond is the William L. Clayton Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and the Mosbacher Senior Fellow in Global Democracy at Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI). He is also a Bass University fellow and teaches political science and sociology courses on democracy. At Hoover, he coleads the Project on Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific and contributes to the Program on the US, China, and the World. At FSI, he is a core faculty member at the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law, leads the Israel Studies Program, coleads the Global Digital Policy Incubator, and cofounded the Journal of Democracy.
Paul Brest is Former Dean and Professor Emeritus (active), at Stanford Law School, a lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, co-director of the Effective Philanthropy Learning Initiative at the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society, and co-director of the Stanford Law and Policy Lab. He was president of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation from 2000-2012. He is co-author of Money Well Spent: A Strategic Guide to Smart Philanthropy (2nd ed. 2018), Problem Solving, Decision Making, and Professional Judgment (2010), and articles on constitutional law, philanthropy, and impact investing. His current courses include Problem Solving for Social Change, Thinking in Systems, The University in Crisis, and two undergraduate courses: Democracy and Disagreement and Citizenship in the 21st Century. He also the co-creator of the open and free online interactive courses, Developing a Strategy for Social Change and Thinking in Systems.
ABOUT THE MODERATOR
Brian Coyne is an Advanced Lecturer in Political Science and serves as the Nehal and Jenny Fan Raj Lecturer in Undergraduate Teaching. He received his B.A. in Government from Harvard College in 2007 and his Ph.D. in Political Science from Stanford University in 2014. His dissertation, "Non-state Power and Non-state Legitimacy," investigates how powerful non-state actors like NGOs, corporations, and international institutions can be held democratically accountable to the people whose lives they influence. Coyne's other research interests include political representation, responses to climate change, and the politics of urban space and planning. In addition to Political Science, he also teaches in Stanford's Public Policy, Urban Studies, and COLLEGE programs.
