Presidential Symposium Series Lecture Will Feature Topic of Christian Higher Education

October 27, 2010

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Dr. Kenneth G. Elzinga, professor of economics at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Va., will lecture on "Christian Higher Education vs. Christians in Higher Education" at 3 p.m. Friday, Oct. 29, in Kayser Auditorium of the Hankamer School of Business on the Baylor campus.

The event, which is free and open to the public, is a part of the Presidential Symposium Series presented in honor of Baylor President Ken Starr's first year in office. The series features scholars from across the United States speaking on topics relevant to the Baylor mission.

Elzinga will discuss what it means for a university to be relentlessly secular and what it means for a university to be unabashedly Christian.

Elzinga received his bachelor's degree in 1963 from Kalamazoo College in Kalamazoo, Mich., and his doctorate degree from Michigan State University in East Lansing, Mich. in 1967. He is an expert in antitrust economics and has testified in several precedent-setting antitrust cases, including three Supreme Court decisions.

As well as authoring more than 70 academic publications, Elzinga has written a series of mystery novels, coauthored with Dr. William Breit, professor emeritus at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, under the joint pseudonym Marshall Jevons.

Elzinga has been a member of the University of Virginia faculty since 1967 and has been the Robert C. Taylor Professor of Economics there since 2002. He has received numerous teaching awards, and his introductory economics course attracts more than 1,000 students, making it the largest class offered at the university.

Five future speakers are scheduled throughout the year as a part of the Presidential Symposium Series. This semester's speakers will include Dr. Jean Bethke Elshtain and Dr. Nancy Cantor.

Elshtain, the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Professor of Social and Political Ethics in the Divinity School at the University of Chicago, will discuss the value of liberal education. Cantor, chancellor and president of Syracuse University, will speak on engagement of the university within the community.

The Hankamer School of Business is located at the corner of Fourth Street and Speight Avenue.

by Katy McDowall, student newswriter, (254) 710-6805