One of the ways NAS is working for higher education reform is to build and encourage the development of specialized programs that fill a gap in today's college curriculum. Such programs offer courses in subjects that have been largely neglected by mainstream institutions: American history and freedom, Constitutionalism, Western civilization, free markets, Great Books, and civic leadership.
NAS has compiled a database of these campus-based programs and lists them on the "Excellent Programs" page on our website. Our chairman Steve Balch helped build many of the nearly 50 listed.
We are always updating our Excellent Programs page; check out the newest addition, below. We invite you to browse our list and send the link (/resources/recommended_programs) to interested friends.
The list of programs can be accessed by clicking the blue “Excellent Programs” tab on the left sidebar of the NAS homepage.
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University of California at Los Angles – Center for Liberal Arts and Free Institutions (CLAFI)
Website: http://www.clafi.ucla.edu/index.php
An interdisciplinary center created in 2009 as part of the UCLA division of Humanities, CLAFI is dedicated to teaching the history of free institutions; encouraging students to confront basic questions of the meaning of life through the liberal arts; and promoting the study of the great works of civilization. CLAFI sponsors courses for undergraduates oriented toward these goals and invites the public to lectures, seminars, performances, and discussion groups. The UCLA Shakespeare Society is an affiliated group that meets to discuss the plays of Shakespeare and attend local productions of them. CLAFI is directed by Daniel Lowenstein, professor of law emeritus at UCLA.