Hoover Institution (Stanford, CA) – The Hoover Institution hosted its annual winter board meeting on February 25–27, 2024, welcoming overseers for two days of events that included the dedication of a new building named for the late secretary of state and Hoover distinguished fellow George P. Shultz.
Tad and Dianne Taube Director Condoleezza Rice said naming the new building after Shultz was fitting, as his life and work aligned with core principles of the Hoover Institution: national service, academic scholarship, a dedication to freedom and liberty, and a belief in America’s positive role in the world.
Presentations at the meeting spoke to the dynamism of Hoover, as the institution continues to convene the best minds it can find and expand its scholarship to better help America confront its most pressing challenges, both at home and abroad.
Dedication of George P. Shultz Building
Director Rice highlighted a host of new programs and initiatives underway at the institution, including the opening of a new building on Stanford’s campus.
Overseers set foot inside the 55,000-square-foot George P. Shultz Building for the first time, with a formal dedication ceremony on Sunday, February 25.
The new George P. Shultz Building is seen shortly after its completion in February 2024. (Eric Draper)
In tribute to Shultz’s service to the nation, as well as his reputation for convening academic and public policy leaders during his careers both in government and at Hoover, the building will serve as a new collaborative working space for the fellowship.
At the dedication, Rice called Shultz “a great and well-regarded academic who gave his life to public service and to service of his country.” She recounted calling Shultz when she was offered the role of secretary of state by then US president George W. Bush.
“He said to me, ‘Oh, it’s the best job of all of them,’” Rice recalled.
Director Condoleezza Rice speaks at the opening of the George P. Shultz Building on February 25, 2024. (Eric Draper)
“And I said, ‘George, why is that? Are you just saying that because I am about to become secretary of state?’” Rice remembered. “And he said, ‘No, it’s because you get to represent the United States of America, what it stands for, its values, its sense of compassion, and the fact that it always tries to bring together power and principle.’”
Rice said she hoped the new building dedicated to Shultz “will be imbued with his spirit” as it prepares to host Hoover fellows for the first time in the coming weeks.
Stanford president Richard Saller said the university community would do well to heed Shultz’s wisdom and convening nature in light of recent controversies on campus.
“His example is more important than ever. I can tell you just from this past weekend that the tensions on campus are particularly acute now, but his example is the one we need to convey to our students and our faculty,” Saller said.
Board Meeting Presentations
Director Rice Welcomes New Fellows to Hoover
In a presentation in Hauck Auditorium, Rice explained how expanding the institution’s presence is another exciting development, mentioning plans to purchase a new building in Washington, DC, to serve as a larger iteration of the institution’s East Coast outpost.
Hoover Institution director Condoleezza Rice speaks to board members and staff in Hauck Auditorium on February 26, 2024. (Eric Draper)
The institution continues to grow the size of its fellowship, and Director Rice named two new fellows who will join over the next eighteen months. First Amendment expert Eugene Volokh joined the institution as a senior fellow in March 2024, and China expert Frank Dikötter will join as a full-time senior fellow in the spring of 2025. “With new senior fellows coming on, so do new ideas about Hoover and how we can contribute to advancing freedom,” Rice said.
Launch of the Center for Revitalizing American Institutions
From left to right, senior fellows Jonathan Rodden, Justin Grimmer, Stephen Haber, Stephen Kotkin, and Brandice Canes-Wrone speak on a panel in Hauck Auditorium on February 26, 2024. (Eric Draper)
Hoover’s new Center for Revitalizing American Institutions (RAI) launched officially in November 2023 with a discussion featuring New Hampshire governor Chris Sununu and Maryland governor Wes Moore.
RAI will generate research on approaches to not only restoring trust in institutions but also to reforming and improving election processes and the tenets of democratic citizenship. RAI director and Maurice R. Greenberg Senior Fellow Brandice Canes-Wrone said during a board meeting presentation that the center’s first efforts have been well received.
On the topic of democratic citizenship, RAI includes an effort led by Peter and Helen Bing Senior Fellow Stephen Haber to preserve academic freedom on US university campuses.
Haber said one of the aims of this effort is to restore what he called the fundamental mission of higher education, “separating what is true from what is not true.” He said that this mission has often been replaced by faculty efforts to advocate a particular ideological position, regardless of what the facts say.
In response to this education environment, several Hoover scholars, including Haber and Senior Fellow Josiah Ober, have launched the Stanford Civics Initiative, aimed at restoring balance to academic instruction and refocusing it on the simple pursuit of truth.
Economic Outlook for 2024 and Beyond
Senior Fellow John Cogan and Distinguished Visiting Fellow Kevin Warsh speak about the US economic outlook for 2024 at a lunch in Blount Hall on February 26, 2024. (Eric Draper)
Leonard and Shirley Ely Senior Fellow John Cogan and Shepard Family Distinguished Visiting Fellow in Economics Kevin Warsh pointed out some economic trends to watch during the 2024 election cycle and beyond. They underscored the disparity between the performance of goods-producing sector of the world economy, which is still recovering from the impacts of the pandemic, and the services sector, which is booming. Goods-export-oriented countries like China are posting their worst rates of economic growth since 1990. Meanwhile the service-oriented sector is driving economic growth in the United States. However, a large majority of job gains seen in the US over the last several quarters has been in the public or quasi-public sector, while private-sector job growth has been largely flat.
Student Fellowship Program
Distinguished Research Fellow Glenn Tiffert (right) and Stanford undergraduates Laura Bocek (center) and Neelay Trivedi (right) speak about the Student Fellowship Program in Hoover’s Hauck Auditorium on February 26, 2024. (Eric Draper)
With its Student Fellowship Program, Hoover regularly recruits Stanford students to assist with research efforts and support operations. Students benefit from mentorship and partake in exclusive programming for Hoover scholars. China’s Global Sharp Power project cochair and distinguished research fellow Glenn Tiffert spoke about his experience employing twenty-one students for the project’s efforts over the last couple of years. Students joined Tiffert on stage to share their experience working with Hoover fellows in various research functions. The China’s Global Sharp Power project has put out thirteen publications in the past four years, and Tiffert said student fellows served integral roles on all those projects.
The Definition of Insanity and the Future of K–12 Education
Senior Fellow Eric Hanushek and Distinguished Research Fellow Margaret “Macke” Raymond speak about their findings on learning loss in Hauck Auditorium on February 26, 2024. (Eric Draper)
Paul and Jean Hanna Senior Fellow in Education Eric Hanushek and Distinguished Research Fellow Margaret (Macke) Raymond spoke about the future of K–12 education in the United States, and specifically the best path forward to recuperate learning losses sustained during the COVID-19 lockdowns. They recommend a multifaceted approach, including linking compensation to teacher effectiveness, establishing remedial after-school and summer programs, and taking measures to improve, and possibly remove, lower-performing teachers.
The Great Convener: George P. Shultz and National Security
Distinguished Fellow Jim Mattis speaks on a panel about national security in Hauck Auditorium on February 26, 2024. (Eric Draper)
Drawing on George Shultz’s mastery in cultivating and maintaining America’s varied global alliances, Hoover fellows Jim Mattis, Jim Ellis, David Fedor, and Philip Zelikow discussed America’s national security challenges in the short and in the medium term. The panelists recommended that more effort be expended by US leaders to foster stronger ties, both in the Indo-Pacific region and in Europe. They suggested a variety of policy changes to achieve this aim, ranging from a major increase in the size of the foreign service to General Mattis’s idea of a “Radio Free Europe on steroids” to counter foreign disinformation efforts by America’s rivals and promote democratic ideals abroad.
Armchair Conversation on 2024 Election Insights
Senior fellows Douglas Rivers and David Brady speak about US presidential election polling data in Hauck Auditorium on February 27, 2024. (Eric Draper)
Senior Fellow Douglas Rivers and Davies Family Senior Fellow, Emeritus, David Brady spoke of a new initiative in partnership with Arizona State University and Yale University, using large-sample polls of up to thirty thousand respondents to generate more detailed insights into the voting public ahead of the 2024 election. So far, they’ve found that President Biden is struggling with both centrist voters and the far-left element of his base. Meanwhile, former president Donald Trump is slowly showing improvements among moderates, with many responding that Biden’s age is a deciding factor in their choice not to vote for him. These large-sample polls show that Biden is leading Trump nationally but within a traditional 2 percent margin of error. Rivers and Brady both predict the 2024 campaign will be largely negative, with both sides attacking each other in a contest largely devoid of actual policy discussion.
Dinners Honor Secretary Shultz’s Service to America
The board, fellows, and senior staff also commemorated Shultz’s legacy and the opening of the new Shultz Building at dinners on February 25 and 26.
At the February 25 dinner, US senator from Alaska Dan Sullivan—like Shultz a US Marine—recounted Shultz’s enormous impact on him as he prepared a run for national politics and worked to advance US foreign policy goals once elected.
“Even as he turned one hundred years old, George Shultz was still passing down his wisdom to the next generation, for the benefit of the country he loved,” Sullivan said.
US senator from Alaska Dan Sullivan speaks about George Shultz’s legacy at a dinner in Blount Hall on Sunday, February 25, 2024. (Eric Draper)
Kleinheinz Senior Fellow Stephen Kotkin also spoke of Shultz at the February 25 dinner, relating the new building dedicated to his legacy to goals he and the fellowship hope to achieve to honor the late secretary of state and the traditions of Hoover’s scholarship.
“We honor them not solely or even predominantly with statues or even with magnificent buildings. We honor them by continuing our work, by taking on the mission, by using their example to inspire us, convening, publishing, podcasting, having an impact, advancing freedom [and] advancing the mission.”
“That’s the meaning of the Shultz Building, That’s the work.”
Attendees on February 25 also heard from former US resident George W. Bush via recorded video. A budding artist in his post-service years, Bush told attendees that he completed a portrait of Shultz, at the request of Shultz’s wife Charlotte.
“I think it kind of looked like George when it was finished,” Bush quipped, adding, “But as I painted him, I painted him with a lot of respect. I tried to show a man of character, a man of depth, a man of compassion.”
“My hope for the country is that more George Shultzes show up to give our political figures sound, solid advice.”
Former UK prime minister Tony Blair recorded a message also, commending Shultz as a “bridgebuilder” and “consensus builder.”
“He never did it to find the lowest common denominator in any situation. He always did it with a very clear idea of what he wanted the consensus to achieve. And that’s what made him such a great statesman.”
Tim Isaacs, a Stanford student and great-nephew of George and Charlotte Shultz, then sang some of the late secretary’s favorite tunes, including “America the Beautiful.”
Stanford student Tim Isaacs sings favorite songs of his great-uncle the late George Shultz in Blount Hall on February 25, 2024. (Eric Draper)
At the February 26 dinner, Senior Fellow Joshua Rauh and Director Rice congratulated five winners of the Hoover Institution Summer Policy Boot Camp Director’s Award.
Each of the five winning students wrote an essay advocating for a policy proposal they developed while attending the 2023 boot camp.
The authors each gave a sixty-second breakdown of their papers, which explored topics including food stamp program reform, the California water crisis, and reworking noncompete clauses.
Hoover Institution director Condoleezza Rice and Senior Fellow Joshua Rauh (to her left) stand with winners of the 2023 Hoover Institution Summer Policy Boot Camp Director’s Award in Blount Hall on February 26, 2024. (Eric Draper)
