NORTHWOOD UNIVERSITY FREEDOM WEEK

Celebrating Liberty

America is the only country in history founded on sound biblical principles and authentic liberal ideas of individual rights and personal responsibility.

At Northwood University our mission is to develop the future leaders of a global, free-enterprise society.

Hundreds of our students and some of the world's leading conservative and libertarian institutions, economists, entrepreneurs, legal scholars, public servants, and political philosophers will participate at Northwood University's Freedom Week 2016. Freedom Week is executed in conjunction with the McNair Center for the Advancement of Free Enterprise and Entrepreneurship at Northwood University.

Please join us for a very special FREEDOM WEEK!

Monday, September 12th thru Friday, September 16th, 2016
Griswold Lecture Hall
Northwood University Campus,
Midland, Michigan

This free event, open to the public, will showcase over a dozen leaders of our global, free-enterprise society as they share insights into current issues, historical information, and the Northwood idea.

  • Free Event
  • Public Welcome
  • Multiple sessions per evening
  • Learn about the morality of capitalism, inequality, American exceptionalism, immigration, innovation, free speech and more

See the agenda below and mark your calendar.

Dr. Keith A. Pretty
President and CEO
Northwood University

"The path forward, from Northwood University's perspective, is well-defined by our philosophy, The Northwood Idea, described by former faculty member Dr. V. Orval Watts, in 1973. The belief is simple but profound: a belief that is even more relevant today. Our founders believed that free, enterprising, and creative individuals at work in a free, enterprising, and creative society produce more and better opportunities and a higher standard of living for everyone. And this idea has met the test of time. As you participate in Freedom Week, please keep in mind one of Northwood University's values – freedom. Without freedom, particularly economic freedom, we cannot have prosperity. Cultures need to embrace and protect people's freedoms and allow them to manage their everyday choices and economic activities; and inspire and spur creativity, imagination, and entrepreneurship, ultimately creating a future of prosperity. That is the Northwood Idea!"

Agenda

Monday,
September 12

Agenda

The Gender Wage Gap
Speaker: Ben Southwood, Head of Research, Adam Smith Institute
Click for More Info
9:30 at GSAB 112

Licensing
Speaker: Jarrett Skorup, Policy Analyst, Mackinac Center for Public Policy
Click for More Info
9:55 a.m. at GSAB 112

The Morality of Capitalism
Speaker: Andrew Bernstein, Professors of Philosophy, American University in Bulgaria, Foundation for Economic Education
Click for More Info
10:20 at GSAB 112

F.A. Hayek Lecture: The History of Entrepreneurship in America
Speaker: Dr. Burt Folsom, Charles Kline chair of history and management, Hillsdale College
Click for More Info
6:00 p.m. at Griswold Lecture Hall

Events are still being added. Watch this page for the latest information.


Tuesday.
September 13
WIE (NADA)

Agenda

Entrepreneurship in Bulgaria: a view from the outside
Speaker: Toufic Hawly, CEO, Feronialab
Click for More Info
9:30 a.m.

Market failure - or government failure?
Speaker: Eamonn Butler
Click for More Info
9:55 a.m.

Regulation and economic growth
Speaker: James Broughel, Research Fellow, Mercatus Center at George Mason University
Click for More Info
10:20  a.m. 

Ending the war on drugs
Speaker: Jacob Hornberger, Founder and President, Future of Freedom Foundation
Click for More Info
11:00 a.m.

Immigration reform
Speaker: Charles Steele, Dettwiler Chair in Economics, Hillsdale College
Click for More Info
11:25 a.m.

Austrian economics

Speaker: Peter Klein, Professor of Entrepreneurship, Baylor University and Mises Institute
Click for More Info
11:50 a.m.

The Austrian School in the battle of ideas

Speaker: Richard Ebeling, Professor of Ethics and Free Enterprise, The Citadel
Click for More Info
12:20 p.m.

Threats to freedom in Europe

Speaker: Kalin Manolov, Journalist, Bulgaria on Air TV, Institute for Free Market Capitalism Atlas
Click for More Info
12:55 p.m.

Keeping Our Republic
Speaker: Matthew Parks, Professor of Politics, The King’s College
Click for More Info
1:20 p.m.

Events are still being added. Watch this page for the latest information.


Wednesday,
September 14
GLA

Agenda

Sweatshops: lessons from the Third World
Speaker: Benjamin Powell, Senior fellow of Independent Institute, Director of the Free Market Institute, professor of economics at Texas Tech University, North American Editor of the Review of Austrian Economics, past president of the Association of Private Enterprise Education
Click for More Info
9:30 a.m.

Political Stablity vs. Populism
Speaker: Dimitar Ivanovski, former Deputy Minister of Finance, Alternate Governor for IMF, Governor for Black Sea Trade and Development Bank, Program Director in the Center for Economic Development in Bulgaria
Click for More Info
9:55 a.m.

Fiscal responsibility: lessons from Canada
Speaker: Charles Lamman, Director Fiscal Studies, Fraser Institute in Canada
Click for More Info
10:20 a.m.

Constitution Day Lecture: "The Constitution and the Spirit of Enterprise"
Speaker: Anthony Peacock, Utah State University
6:00 p.m.

Events are still being added. Watch this page for the latest information.


Thursday,
September 15
WIE (NADA)

Agenda

Criminal justice reform
Speaker: Ronnie Lampard, Director, Criminal Justice Reform Task Force, American Legislative Exchange Council
Click for More Info
9:30 a.m.

What Austrians can teach us about the economy
Speaker: Federico N. Fernández, Senior Research Fellow, Austrian Economics Center
Click for More Info
9:55 a.m.

Continuity, Change and the Constitution
Speaker: John York, Research Assistant, The Heritage Foundation
Click for More Info
10:20 a.m.

Private institutions, NGO’s, and liberty
Speaker: Georgi Vuldzhev, Bulgarian Libertarian Society
Click for More Info
11:00 a.m.

Inequality--Should We Care?
Speaker: Gary Wolfram, William E. Simon Professor of Economics, President of Hillsdale Policy Group, Hillsdale Colleg
Click for More Info
11:25 a.m.

What Is Objectivism and What It Isn't
Speaker: Aaron Smith and Tsvetelin Tsonevski, Instructors, Ayn Rand Institute
Click for More Info
11:50 a.m.

The sharing economy
Speaker: Michael Van Beek, Director of Research, Mackinac Center for Public Policy
Click for More Info
12:30 p.m.

Death by Regulation: How We Were Robbed of a Golden Age of Health and How We Can Reclaim It
Speaker: Ken Schoolland, President and Mary Ruwart, Chair, Liberty International
Click for More Info
12:55 p.m.

The Fed as a threat to capitalism
Speakers: Kuzman Iliev and Vladimir Sirkarov, Journalists, Bulgaria on Air TV, Brain Workshop Institute
Click for More Info
1:20 p.m.

Milton Friedman Lecture: The Seven Principles of Sound Policy
Speaker: Lawrence Reed, President, Foundation for Economics Education
(Introduction by Kristin Stehouwer, VP, COO, and CAO of Northwood University)
Click for More Info
6:00 p.m. at Griswold Lecture Hall

Ice cream social to follow the official closing of Freedom Week 2016 by Keith Pretty, President and CEO of Northwood University

Events are still being added. Watch this page for the latest information.


Friedrich Hayek

"The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design."

Keynote Speakers

Dr. Burt Folsom

Dr. Burt Folsom

Professor of Econ History, Hillsdale College

Topic:
The History of Entrepreneurship in America

Dr. Burt Folsom is a professor of history at Hillsdale College, a fine institution that takes no federal funds and turns out about 300 graduates each year. He is also a columnist and the historian-in-residence at the Foundation for Economic Education in Irvington, New York.

Folsom has written several books. One of the most popular ones is The Myth of the Robber Barons (six editions, Young America’s Foundation), in which he discusses the differences between political entrepreneurs and market entrepreneurs. He gives examples from history of various businessmen (Rockefeller, Schwab, Vanderbilt, for example) and how their actions affected their contemporaries and the history of the United States. He explores the positive effects of entrepreneurs and limited government on the rise of the U.S. in the late 1800s.

In New Deal or Raw Deal: How FDR’s Economic Legacy Has Damaged America (Simon & Schuster, 2008), he examines the disastrous effects of massive federal spending under Franklin Roosevelt during the New Deal years of the 1930s. Did FDR’s New Deal help the American economy? New Deal or Raw Deal answers that question. He co-authored the sequel with his wife, Anita Folsom, FDR Goes to War: How Expanded Executive Power, Spiraling National Debt, and Restricted Civil Liberties Shaped Wartime America (Simon & Schuster, 2011). This book covers the period from the 1930s through the end of the war, and the post-war recovery.

Glen Moots

Glenn Moots

Professor and Chair, Philosophy and Political Science
Director, The Forum for Citizenship and Enterprise

Anthony A. Peacock

Anthony A. Peacock

Professor and Political Science Department head - Utah State University
Co-Director of USU's Center for the Study of American Constitutionalism

Topic:
The Constitution and the Spirit of Enterprise

Anthony A. Peacock is professor and department head in the Political Science Department at Utah State University. He is also Co-Director of USU's Center for the Study of American Constitutionalism. Peacock is the author or editor of numerous books, including How to Read The Federalist Papers (The Heritage Foundation, 2010), Freedom and the Rule of Law (Lexington Books, 2010), Deconstructing the Republic: Voting Rights, the Supreme Court, and the Founders' Republicanism Reconsidered (The AEI Press, 2008), Affirmative Action and Representation: Shaw v. Reno and the Future of Voting Rights (Carolina Academic Press, 1997), and Rethinking the Constitution: Perspectives on Canadian Constitutional Reform, Interpretation, and Theory (Oxford University Press, 1996). Peacock has also published many articles, book chapters, and book reviews on American law and politics. Peacock has provided media commentary on national and state politics and has lectured on American politics and law both nationally and internationally. He currently sits on the Advisory Board of the "Coalition of Freedom" for the National Constitution Center and on the Utah State Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights. At Utah State Peacock has taught courses in the fields of constitutional law, constitutional theory, law and policy, law, politics, and war, and political theory.

Lawrence Reed

Lawrence Reed

Former Northwood University, Professor of Economics
President of FEE

Topic:
The Seven Principles of Sound Policy

Lawrence W. (“Larry”) Reed became president of FEE in 2008 after serving as chairman of its board of trustees in the 1990s and both writing and speaking for FEE since the late 1970s. Prior to becoming FEE’s president, he served for 20 years as president of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy in Midland, Michigan. He also taught economics full-time from 1977 to 1984 at Northwood University and chaired its department of economics from 1982 to 1984.

He holds a B.A. in economics from Grove City College (1975) and an M.A. degree in history from Slippery Rock State University (1978), both in Pennsylvania. He holds two honorary doctorates, one from Central Michigan University (public administration, 1993) and Northwood University (laws, 2008).

A champion for liberty, Reed has authored over 1,000 newspaper columns and articles and dozens of articles in magazines and journals in the United States and abroad. His writings have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Christian Science Monitor, USA Today, Baltimore Sun, Detroit News and Detroit Free Press, among many others. He has authored or coauthored seven books, the most recent ones being Excuse Me, Professor: Challenging the Myths of Progressivism and A Republic—If We Can Keep It. He is frequently interviewed on radio talk shows and has appeared as a guest on numerous television programs, including those anchored by Judge Andrew Napolitano and John Stossel on FOX Business News.


Additional Speakers

Peter G. Klein

Peter G. Klein

Professor of Entrepreneurship at Baylor University's Hankamer School of Business and Senior Research Fellow at the Baugh Center for Entrepreneurship and Free Enterprise

Jacob Hornberger

Jacob Hornberger

President of The Future of Freedom Foundation

Topic:
The libertarian case for ending the war on drugs and legalizing all drugs

Jarrett Skorup

Jarrett Skorup

Policy Analyst, Mackinac Center for Public Policy

Topic:
Licensing

James Broughel

James Broughel

Research Fellow, State and Local Policy Project, Mercatus Center at George Mason University

Topic:
The Basics of How Regulation Impacts Economic Growth

Dr. Eamonn Butler

Dr. Eamonn Butler

Director, Adam Smith Institute, London Butler

Topic:
Market failure - or government failure?

Dr. Aaron Smith

Dr. Aaron Smith

Instructor, Ayn Rand Institute

Topic:
What Is Objectivism and What It Isn't

Ben Southwood

Ben Southwood

Head of Research, Adam Smith Institute

Topic:
The Gender Wage Gap

Andrew Bernstein

Andrew Bernstein

Member of FEE Faculty Network

Topic:
Morality in Capitalism

Chalres Steele, Ph.D.

Chalres Steele, Ph.D.

Herman and Suzanne Dettwiler Chair in Economics, Associate Professor, Hillsdale College

Topic:
Libertarian arguments against unrestricted immigration

Matthew Parks

Matthew Parks

Assistant Professor of Politics and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs

Topic:
Keeping Our Republic: Principles for a Political Reformation

Benjamin Powell

Benjamin Powell

Director, Free Market Institute

Topic:
Immigration

Charles Lammam

Charles Lammam

Director, Fiscal Studies, Fraser Institute

Gary Wolfram

Gary Wolfram

William E. Simon Professor of Economics and Public Policy & Director of Economics and Political Economy at Hillsdale College

Topic:
Inequality--Should We Care?

Tsvetelin Tsonevski

Tsvetelin Tsonevski

College Programs Coordinator, Ayn Rand Institute

Topic:
What Is Objectivism and What It Isn't

Michael Van Beek

Director of Research for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy

Topic:
The Sharing Economy

Ronnie Lampard

Director, Criminal Justice Reform Task Force, ALEC

Topic:
Criminal Justice

Dimiter Ivanovski

Topic:
Political Stability vs. Populism

Federico N. Fernández

Senior Research Fellow, Austrian Economics Center

Topic:
Migration and Freedom

Kalin Manolov

Topic:
Threats to Liberty in Europe

Ken Schoolland

President of International Society of Individual Liberty

Topic:
Healthcare

Kuzman Iliev and Vladimir Sirkarov

Brain Workshop Institute in Bulgaria & Bulgaria On Air

Topic:
Monetary Policy



Freedom Week Sponsors

Lead Sponsor: McNair Center

Adam Smith Institute in UK

American Legislative Exchange Council

Austrian Economics Center

Ayn Rand Institute

Baylor University

Brain Workshop Institute in Bulgaria

Bulgarian Libertarian Society

Bulgaria On Air

Charles Koch Foundation

Forum for Citizenship and Enterprise

Foundation for Economics Education

Fraser Institute in Canada

Future of Freedom Foundation

George Mason University

Hayek Institute in Austria

Heritage Foundation

Hillsdale College

Hillsdale Policy Group

Independent Institute

Institute for Humane Studies

International Society for Individual Liberty

John Templeton Foundation

The King's College

Mackinac Center for Public Policy

Mercatus Center

Mises Institute

Mont Pelerin Society

Northwood University



Travel/Location

Northwood University
Griswold Lecture Hall
4000 Whiting Drive
Midland, MI 48640
Campus Map


View the larger map
Griswold Lecture Hall

By Air

  • MBS International Airport, serviced by United, Delta, and many commuter flights, is 18 miles from the campus. Limousine service is available at the airport. The airport has several car rental agencies.

To Northwood University from the airport:

  • Leaving airport grounds, turn right (north) onto Garfield Road.
  • Go approximately 4 miles and turn left (west) onto U.S. 10.
  • Go northwest on US 10 (toward Clare) approximately 11 miles to the Eastman Road Midland exit (as you approach the exit, Midland Cinemas is on the right).
  • Go left (south) on Eastman Road approximately 1 mile to Saginaw Road.
  • Turn right (west) on Saginaw Road and travel approximately 1.5 miles
  • Turn left on Main Street and travel approximately 1 mile
  • Turn right on University Drive

By Car from Detroit

(approximately 135 miles)

  • Follow I-75 (north) beyond Saginaw to the US 10 intersection.
  • Go west on US 10 (toward Clare) to the Eastman Road Midland exit (as you approach the exit, Midland Cinemas is on the right).
  • Go left (south) on Eastman Road approximately 1 mile to Saginaw Road.
  • Turn right (west) on Saginaw Road and travel approximately 1.5 miles
  • Turn left on Main Street and travel approximately 1 mile
  • Turn right on University Drive

By Car from Lansing

(approximately 100 miles)

  • Follow US 127 (north) to M-20.
  • Go (east) on M-20 about 24 miles to Main Street of Midland (traffic light).
  • Turn left on Main Street, go approximately 1 mile
  • Turn left on University Drive

By Car from Grand Rapids

(approximately 125 miles)

  • Take US 131 expressway (north) to M-46 East.
  • Go east on M-46. Proceed east to US 127.
  • Follow US 27 (north) to M-20.
  • Go left (east) on M-20 about 24 miles to Main Street of Midland (traffic light).
  • Turn left on Main Street, go approximately 1 mile
  • Turn left on University Drive

Hotel Accomodations

NADA Hotel
For maximum comfort and easy of travel, stay on campus at the NADA Hotel & Conference center. Located in the heart of campus, this striking building features a floor to ceiling window in its main meeting hall, backdrop to frequent campus gatherings. The NADA Hotel is a non-smoking, adult-oriented facility. Guests also have access to our fitness center throughout their stay. Online reservations may be made in just a few clicks.
Online Hotel Reservations

Want to know more? about Northwood University

Northwood University is committed to the most personal attention to prepare students for success in their careers and in their communities; it promotes critical thinking skills, personal effectiveness, and the importance of ethics, individual freedom and responsibility.

Private, nonprofit, and accredited, Northwood University specializes in managerial and entrepreneurial education at a full-service, residential campus located in mid-Michigan. Adult Degree Program are available in eight states with many course delivery options including an online option. The DeVos Graduate School offers day, evening and weekend programming in Michigan and Texas. The Alden B. Dow Center for Creativity and Enterprise provides system-wide expertise in family enterprise, entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation, and new business development. International education is offered through study abroad and in Program Centers in Switzerland, China, Malaysia and Sri Lanka.

Learn More
Northwood University is committed to a policy of nondiscrimination and equal opportunity for all persons regardless of race, gender, color, religion, creed, national origin or ancestry, age, marital status, disability or veteran status. The University also is committed to compliance with all applicable laws regarding nondiscrimination.
Higher Learning Commission Mark of Affiliation Northwood University is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission and is a member of the North Central Association (800.621.7440; higherlearningcommission.org).