Join the HxA Campus Community at Cornell University for a talk by HxA president, John Tomasi on Tuesday November 18, 2025 at 5:30-7:00 PM.

“The real question for us now is whether universities will simply mirror the polarization of our society — or model something better. Can we show that disagreement, done well, is not a threat but a form of collaboration? That people who think differently can still make progress together?” says John Tomasi, inaugural president of Heterodox Academy (HxA) https://heterodoxacademy.org/, a nonpartisan nonprofit of 8,000+ faculty and administrators advocating for open inquiry in the academy.

This year, HxA unveiled its four-point agenda, Open Inquiry U, as a guiding document to drive internal reform within the academy. Colleges and universities’ highest purpose is the communal pursuit of knowledge through rigorous inquiry, dialogue, and discovery. As faculty push the boundaries of existing understandings, and students wrestle with challenging questions and ideas, a college or university can cultivate a uniquely creative and disciplined environment that enriches the entire society around it. But, Tomasi urges, meaningful change must come from within; from those who care about our universities and want them to live up to their highest ideals.

The talk is free and open to the public. Join us in person at Cornell University in the Lewis Auditorium, G76 Goldwin Smith. It will also be livestreamed; register to participate via Zoom here: https://cornell.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ic2GE2yQSCaErWqhIn6IQw#/registration.

John Tomasi is the inaugural President of Heterodox Academy (HxA), a nonpartisan nonprofit organization of more than 8,000 scholars, administrators, and higher education leaders committed to building cultures of open inquiry across the academy. Since joining HxA in 2021, Tomasi has led major initiatives to strengthen the culture of open inquiry on campuses, including the Open Inquiry U reform agenda and the expansion of HxA’s Campus Community Network across North America and the UK. Under his leadership, HxA has become a leading voice for academic freedom and pluralism amid growing political and cultural pressures on universities. Prior to HxA, Tomasi was the Romeo Elton 1843 Professor of Natural Theology at Brown University, where he founded the Political Theory Project to promote dialogue across ideological divides. He earned graduate degrees from the University of Arizona and Oxford University, and is the author of Free Market Fairness (2012) and co-author of The Individualists (2023, with Matt Zwolinski).

Co-sponsored by the Committee on the Future of the American University and the Program on Freedom and Free Societies.