Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies

The Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies

"Illuminating the American presidency to raise civic literacy, learned discourse, and a new generation of leaders."

The Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies (HCPS) is a presidential research center at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids Michigan, focusing on the American presidency and principles of leadership.

With various partnerships, including with the Gerald R. Ford Foundation and the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum. The Hauenstein Center is able to provide a vast array of lecture series, conferences, and debates that bring together American leaders in scholarship and writing to discuss U.S. presidents and leadership.

Initiatives

American Presidency

The Hauenstein Center uses the stories of American presidents - their triumphs and trials, decisions and indecisions, vision and shortsightedness - to inspire and instruct. Whether they leave office with laurels or lacerations, they always enter with the admiration and loyalty of countless Americans. Having distinguished themeselves as civil servants and leaders of thought and action, presidents are expected to master in short order the shifting terrain of American and global politics while also managing the world's most unmanageable job.

Leadership

The Hauenstein Center believes that Americans want leaders who are effective and virtuous. The Hauenstein Center helps individuals understand the distinction and tries to cultivate both aspects into future leaders.

Citizenship

Good citizenship entails both rights and obligations to our society. An understanding of American history, political institutions, and civil society is essential to the brand of civic minded leadership the Hauenstein Center encourages.

Scholarship

The Hauenstein Center works to develop the building blocks of the best scholarship - passion, initiative, discipline, rigor, accuracy, understanding, insight, courage, clarity, and imagination - which are also the building blocks of the best leadership and citizenship.

Ralph W. Hauenstein Series

The Ralph W. Hauenstein Series, a succession of public lectures, conferences, and debates spread throughout Grand Valley's academic year, brings government leaders as well as leading scholars and award-winning writers to Grand Rapids to discuss American history, political traditions, current affairs, and leadership studies. The Hauenstein Center has offered more than eighty public programs, including two national conferences covered by C-SPAN and one live webcast to more than 3,500 viewers in eighteen countries.

Ralph W. Hauenstein

The Hauenstein Center is inspired by Ralph Hauenstein's life of service and vision of leadership. His philanthropy has benefited a variety of organizations devoted to medical research and to education, and it has contributed to the dramatic revitalization that Michigan's second largest city is currently experiencing. His accomplishments, recognized all over the community, have earned him an honorary doctorate from Grand Valley State University and the prestigious Slykehouse Lifetime Achievement Award from the Economic Club of Grand Rapids.

Partnerships

The Hauenstein Center events have often been in partnership with the Gerald R. Ford Foundation and Presidential Library & Museum. Speakers have included Henry Kissinger; political commentators Christopher Hitchens, Linda Chavez, Victor Davis Hanson, and Arianna Huffington; renowned presidential historians Richard Norton Smith, H.W. Brands, Robert Dallak, Michael Beschloss, and Robert Caro; American historians Garry Wills, James McPherson, Allen Guelzo. The Hauenstein Center has also partnered with award-winning documentary film maker Mike Grass.

Other Partnerships Include:

Gerald R. Ford Foundation

Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum

New-York Historical Society

National Park Service

World Affairs Councils of America

Reagan Ranch

Federal Reserve Bank

Houston Community College

Houston Museum of Natural Science

Center for the American Idea

Bill of Rights Institute

Intercollegiate Studies Institute

Jamestown Foundation

World Affairs Council of West Michigan

Grand Rapids Police Department

Russell Kirk Center

Spring Lake District Library

Leadership Grand Rapids

Faculty & Staff

Gleaves Whitney, Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies, Director

Brian Flanagan, Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies, Assistant Director

External links

* [http://www.allpresidents.org] The Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies
* [http://www.geraldrfordfoundation.org/] Gerald R. Ford Foundation